BALONEY HERO, HOLD THE MUSTARD GAS: It’s easy to lambaste war. It’s harder to cut to the chase and hold those who fight responsible for their actions- especially if they died doing so.
Nevertheless we’ve felt compelled to be critical of those who glorify the actions of those who died in war. They serve to perpetuate the insanity of war by telling children that it’s ok to pick up guns and kill by promising remembrance and honor for their dishonorable acts.
Two years ago- to much criticism- we condemned the very concept of Memorial Day for glorifying what should be shame and doing it to bamboozle impressionable children into thinking that there is some kind of honor in murder.
We are re-running our May 2008 piece today in hopes that young people won’t fall for all the “dead hero” propaganda being perpetrated today by their elders many of whom have inexplicably been holding back in condemning the current war-monger-in-chief with the same vigor they displayed during the reign of the previous one just because he’s “our” war criminal.
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WHERE HAVE ALL THE COLLIE FLOWERS GONE:
It’s dead soldier day again. People are honoring those who took the lives of others for no reason other than that they were young and stupid and were told to do so by demented old men who sought to plunder, rape and pillage.
Not us. Today we honor the veterans of anti-war movements throughout history.
In our lifetime every war in which our country has engaged has been an invasive, imperialistic debacle waged at the behest of profiteers and in the name of raw power.
And the one thing they have in common is that when we all “wake up” afterward we are left with a generation of cripples- both physical and mental- and a bunch of tombstones.
Every dead soldier died in vain. There never was a noble cause or even a valid one. The soldiers died protecting nothing but greed and avarice.
The notion that soldiers protected our right to say this is ludicrous. Every war has been accompanied by a diminution of our constitutional rights. Those that fought against the war are the ones who kept free speech alive in the face of depraved and often felonious attempts of the war mongers to stifle it.
Only a true coward kills because they are told to do so. But there have been a few truly courageous young men and women that have been there to say no- we will not go and kill for your plunder. We will not demonize and dehumanize to enable those without the guts to stand up and say no to that which they know to be wrong to pull a trigger and delay the remorse until they get home- if they get home.
Recently someone we know wrote of how he was duped into fighting in Viet Nam- the most common of all excuses for homecoming soldiers for why they went and “fought for their country”. He claimed he had no way of knowing that fighting against communism, domino theories and the Asian menace wasn’t the right thing to do because “no one told me”.
Bullcrap- you just weren’t listening. The writer claimed that there weren’t even any real anti-war activates until 1967 when the fact is that there were major anti-war demonstrations in all major cities in 1965 and many going back to 1961... and some earlier.
No one can tell us it wasn’t a choice made. If by the time you were 18 you hadn’t heard people say that sending young people to die for the demented politics and overflowing wallets of so-called “leaders” you just weren’t listening... to us or even Republican Ike when he spoke of the danger of the military-industrial complex.
Starting in 1965 when this mangy mutt was but a 13 year old pup, many afternoons were spent at the American Friends’ Service committee offices advising young men on how to get out of the draft.
In those days you had two choices- kill or go to jail unless you could show your particular religious upbringing forbade you from fighting and killing in a war. And you had to have a note from your religious leader stating this was true and you, uniquely and individually, were a conscientious objector... in which case you still had to serve the war effort, they just didn’t give you a gun but instead a bed pan.
But there was a book called 4F that listed all of the physical anomalies and illnesses that would enable you to move your 1A designation - aka “cannon fodder”- to the medically excused 4F classification.
This draft-counseling dingo-coyote never lost a client. College deferments were very popular. But if frat life wasn’t your cup o’ tea and you couldn’t find a physical deferment on your own, we’d find one for you- or even make one up. And if that was too hard in those days they “asked” and the right answer could get you out.
If all else failed it was the old licking-the-peanut-butter-off-your-butt-in-front-of-the-sergeant dodge or a similarly bizarre act... we even held rehearsals. And there was always Canada where AFSC had a network set up to welcome you and find you a place to live and even a job.
But you’d be surprised at how many honest kids there were who wanted out of the draft. So finally, along with a fellow draft-counselor who himself was approaching draft age, we wrote and filed the first successful “conscientious objector” filing for someone without a religious background.
And we couldn’t help but notice what was going on in the next office where the walking wounded coming back from the war congregated to bemoan their prior fate.
They didn’t always show physical scars. The trick was to allow them to use their mental anguish to express their anger at a system that had robbed them of their youth, health and integrity.
They organized against the nonsense and told others- like the ones who really didn’t know any better- why despite what their parents and the politicians told them there was no “just cause” or “noble service”, just the depraved ravings of lunatics and fearful little minds who waged war for peace, forced servitude for justice, imprisoned for freedom and killed for life.
We say this not to just tell a story but to show that like most, it was nobody’s fault if you were ignorant in the early 60’s but had a revelation in 1969 just as it was if you believed the 2003 lies and finally had a revelation in 2006 or 2007.
If a 13-year-old knew better, why didn’t you?
They say it’s different now that the draft has been temporarily suspended- even though it is still mandatory to register- but the rhetoric remains the same.
Returning Iraq vets still say “you never told us they were lying before the war. All of us believed the lies.”
Bullcrap. Millions screamed from the rooftops about blood for oil and a lying maniac and his butchers in the White House and serving in Congress. You just didn’t listen.
Meanwhile some obviously tortured souls now, as then, continue to want us to actually honor those that should have known better... and in many cases did but signed up anyway.
Some may say we are being cruel to those who lost sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts and fathers and mothers. But the real cruelty is that the Dead Soldier Day rhetoric gives aggrieved people a lie to believe in to fool and delude themselves and eventually to tell to their kids and grandkids fooling generations into thinking that it is, was or will ever be in any way an honorable thing to be a soldier- alive or dead.
It is not that all those that grieve on Memorial Day are perpetuating the myths Cindy Sheehan grieves for her son Casey. But as to those that must accept and repeat the lies to rationalize the waste of their dead relatives’ lives it is even sadder still to see them cling to the notion that their kin did not die in vain and served and died honorably.
For that they should be ashamed of themselves because by perpetuating that myth they prospectively kill again. They’ve now become the ones the kids wrongly believe before marching off to kill someone else they never met.
And so we honor those who did not serve, those who tried to warn others, those that resisted the draft and later those that didn’t fall for the “army with the condos” scam, those who didn’t sell their soul for a college education, from those who were harassed beaten and jailed in Washington and Chicago in the 60’s to those harassed, beaten and jailed in NYC at the Republican Convention in 2004 to everyone who participated in every demonstration, organizing meeting, puppet show, pentagon levitating, and letter writing session in between.
Those are the honorable- those are the ones whose service to their country we should remember and honor today.
Those who listened in the early 60’s- no matter what their age- had a lot to listen to....as do kids today, as will kids tomorrow.
As long as people speak out, kids will see through the charade of honorable war and they won’t go and fight and kill and die for nothing.
We’ll leave you with three examples of the information available to those considering the murderous life from way back when- the first in some words written by a lady that lives down the street that were popular in 1965 about who’s really to blame, the second by a kid we saw at Gertie’s Folk City in ’61 who wrote words in 1964 about taking sides, the third by an unfortunate son who survived the 60’s to write again in 2007 telling us not to take it any more.
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Universal Soldier
by Buffy Sainte-Marie
( “I wrote "Universal Soldier" in the basement of The Purple Onion coffee house in Toronto in the early sixties. It's about individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all. Donovan had a hit with it in 1965.”)
He's five feet two and he's six feet four
He fights with missiles and with spears
He's all of 31 and he's only 17
He's been a soldier for a thousand years
He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain,
a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew
and he knows he shouldn't kill and he knows he always will
kill you for me my friend and me for you
And he's fighting for Canada,
he's fighting for France,
he's fighting for the USA,
and he's fighting for the Russians
and he's fighting for Japan,
and he thinks we'll put an end to war this way
And he's fighting for Democracy
and fighting for the Reds
He says it's for the peace of all
He's the one who must decide
who's to live and who's to die
and he never sees the writing on the walls
But without him how would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau
Without him Caesar would have stood alone
He's the one who gives his body as a weapon to a war
and without him all this killing can't go on
He's the universal soldier and he really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from him, and you, and me
and brothers can't you see
this is not the way we put an end to war
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With God on Our Side
by Bob Dylan
Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.
Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.
Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.
Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.
When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.
I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.
But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.
In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.
So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.
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I Can't Take It No More
by John Fogerty (2007)
I Can't Take It No More
I Can't Take It No More
I'm sick and tired of your dirty little war
I Can't Take It No More
You know you lied about the casualties
You know you lied about the WMD's
You know you lied about the detainees
All over this world
Stop talking about staying the course
You keep a-beating that old dead horse
You know you lied about how we went to war
I Can't Take It No More
I can't take it
I can't take it
I bet you never saw the old school yard
I bet you never saw the national guard
Your daddy wrote a check and there you are
Another fortunate son
I can't take it no more
I can't take it no more
I'm sick and tired of your dirty little war
I can't take it no more
I can't take it no more
I can't take it no more
I'm sick and tired of your dirty little war
I can't take it no more
Monday, May 31, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
(PNN) KIUC INDICTMENT DETAILS DECADES OF FOOT-DRAGGING ON PROTECTION OF SHEARWATERS, ALBATROSS
KIUC INDICTMENT DETAILS DECADES OF FOOT-DRAGGING ON PROTECTION OF SHEARWATERS, ALBATROSS
DESPITE 1992 CONSENT DECREE AND 2001 MOA CO-OP STILL LACKS “TAKE” PERMIT, HABITAT CONSERVATION PLAN
(PNN) -- A federal grand jury indictment charging Kaua`i Island Utilities Co-op (KIUC) with 20 specific counts of “taking” of Newell's Townsend's Shearwaters and Laysan Albatrosses in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (META) contains a liturgy of allegations of foot-dragging on the part of KIUC and it’s predecessor Citizen’s Electric (CE) dating back to 1979.
It details how, despite a March 1992 consent decree with CE that resulted from a citizen’s lawsuit, to this day many of the decree-mandated recommendation and requirements contained in a study conducted by an advisory panel of scientists- entitled "The Causes and Prevention of 'Fall Out' of Kauai's Seabirds."- have gone unmet to this day.
After Hurricane `Iniki struck Kaua`i the indictment alleges that the following November although “(m)embers of the advisory panel of scientists voiced concerns at the time of the re-building that (a) vertical, net-like, configuration would increase collisions between Newell's shearwaters and power lines” CE refused to go with a “horizontal” configuration- as alternatives to stringing wires between vertical poles (such as "undergrounding") is called throughout the suit- when they rebuilt the grid system.
The indictment states that:
In December 1995, a two-volume study of Kauai's seabirds, including particularly the Newell's shearwater, was published and provided to KIUC's predecessor pursuant to the 1992 consent decree. Approximately 95 % of the fifty downed birds analyzed in the report were discovered within 20 meters of power lines owned and operated by KIUC's predecessor, and subsequently by KIUC. The study concluded in part that during the period 1980 - 1993, "utility structures" on Kauai were responsible for the deaths of between 122 and 350 Newell's shearwaters each year.
The scientific advisory panel publicly concluded, based on the 1995 study results, that, "[it has been confirmed that birds are hitting utility structures and dying." It further concluded that "estimates of downing and mortalities . . . [are] high enough to cause concern about their effects on the population." The 1995 study also concluded that "Summer mortality is correlated with power line arrays where many lines are greater than 15.2 meters high and particularly where they cross major river valleys serving as flyways." The study noted that birds are disoriented by outdoor lights and fall or collide with structures in their path, and that autumn fallout is correlated with lighting.
The study recommended the following actions, among others, to reduce take of seabirds; (1) position wires horizontally rather than as a vertical array on poles; (2) use poles no more than 15 meters high where birds are present; (3) reroute power lines so that they are protected by bridges and tall trees; (4) explore effectiveness of marker balls and bird diverters; (5) bury power lines that cross key flyways, and; (6) shield streetlights.
In the ensuing approximately seven years, KIUC's predecessor did not reposition existing wires, did not lower any existing poles, did not reroute any existing power lines so that they were protected by bridges or tall trees, did not bury any power lines, and failed to shield approximately 700 (or 23%), of its over 3,000 lights, including lights located in identified hot spots for seabirds. Some attempt was made to try bird diverters but it was abandoned. KIUC's predecessor installed some marker balls.
All of the 20 specific “takings”- the technical term for Newell's Townsend's shearwater (Puffinus auricularis newelli) and Laysan albatross (Diomedea immutabilis) deaths- listed in the indictment occurred between 2005 and 2009, 10 plus years after the 1995 report.
But the ’95 report was only the first. The indictment alleges that:
In 1998, another study was published .regarding power lines and seabirds on Kauai. The study recommended, among other things, that lines be arrayed horizontally, that large trees be planted to shield lines, and that lines currently located at river mouths on the coast be moved inland a few hundred meters. Neither KIUC nor its predecessor undertook any of these actions until October 2007 when it reconfigured a single stretch of line.
Despite the commonly held local belief that burying of all electrical wires on the island has been demanded by the federal government the indictment only talks about “bury(ing) power lines that cross key flyways”, and also calls for the use of bridges as well as trees which would be over 15 years old now if they had been planted in 1995 when the recommendations were made.
In the intervening six year CE did little or nothing so in June of 2001 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) sent a letter to CE urging it to apply for an incidental take permit its takings of seabirds under the ESA (Title 50, Code of Federal Regulations, Section 17.11) citing the relevant studies.
After no response, in March 2002 the USFWS again sent a letter to CE asking them to obtain an incidental take permit and initiate an interim conservation strategy "without delay."
Finally that May the CEO of CE and later KIUC acknowledged that shearwaters "have been subject to 'fallout' due to light attraction and collisions with structures, including electrical power lines." and in October signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the USFWS which was “expressly binding on KIUC upon its anticipated acquisition of KIUC's predecessor, which occurred three days later” according to the indictment.
The 2002 MOA was intended to assist KIUC in minimizing and mitigating its takings of the shearwater and albatross and to facilitate its submission of a Habitat Conservation Plan ("HCP") and acquisition of an incidental take permit.
But to this day KIUC has not produced an acceptable HCP nor has it obtained a take permit.
The MOA also called for interim “conservation measures” and delayed enforcement until May 2004 when the permit and plan were supposed to be completed.
The indictment states that:
The measures included inventorying and shielding all remaining unshielded lights, installing marker balls on key lines, and conducting certain on the ground management actions intended to offset take by KIUC facilities during the period covered by the 2002 MOA.
That was when the seven hot spots “known to be heavily used by Newell's shearwaters and other seabirds” were identified as the areas where KIUC had to alter those vertical arrangements for horizontal ones including Wailua at the Wailua River valley, Kealia at the Kapa`a Stream valley, Ele`ele at the Hanapepe River valley, and Waimea at the Waimea River valley.
The indictment says that:
KIUC has failed to modify any of the lines across these locations, except for a stretch of line at Kealia that it reconfigured in October 2007”. However, it did shield affiliated streetlights and place a total of 5 marker balls on three of the lines pursuant to express requirements of the 2002 MOA.
During the time period of the original MOA KIUC did take some measures after much back and forth with USFWS including the shielding of selected streetlights, the placement of five marker balls and finally the funding of the “Save Our Shearwater” (SOS) program which had been previously funded by the state including, the indictment says, for bird downed by KIUC's structures.
That was when the documentation of birds directly injured or killed by KIUC structures began to be documented and four were in 2004 according to the list of specific charges.
Another MOA was then signed in December of 2004 delaying enforcement again and requiring KIUC to continue “operating the SOS program and contribut(e) some funds for a limited predator control program”.
Significantly, around April of 2005 KIUC’s Chair received a copy of “Avian Protection Plan Guidelines” published by the Avian Power Line Interaction Committee, a utility industry group, containing “development and implementation of compliance plans to assist utilities in avoiding bird collisions and electrocutions and thus avoid violations of the MBTA, ESA and other bird-related statutes”.
But despite the provision of this “how to” manual, action on KIUC’s part was not forthcoming and bird deaths attributable to KIUC continued.
According to the indictment on June 1, 2006, the 2004 MOA expired without KIUC having submitted a final HCP or an application for an incidental take permit. In approximately November 2006, “KIUC stated in writing to the USFWS, for purposes of estimating the take that would need to be authorized by an incidental take permit, that, in 2005 alone, its electrical lines and associated structures resulted in the take of 31 to 88 Newell's Shearwaters. KIUC further estimated the take caused by KIUC power lines during 1980 -1993 at 122 to 350 birds per year.”
In exemplifying the amount of prodding needed to get KIUC to begin just one action- reducing “takings” in Port Allen- the indictment says.
In early 2007, KIUC began to modify and shield lights at its Port Allen facility following: (1) a 2003 notification from USFWS that the lights presented a threat to Newell's shearwaters; (2) a 2005 notification that Newell's shearwaters had been observed circling KIUC lights at the Port Allen Facility; (3) KIUC's previously unfulfilled August 2005 commitment to the USFWS to take corrective action regarding those lights; and, (4) the discovery in October 2006 of approximately ten Newell's shearwaters downed at or near KIUC's Port Allen facility.
That’s when the feds seemingly got fed up and on June 29, 2007, “KIUC issued a press release announcing that it had been notified on March 16, 2007, that it was the target of a federal investigation into the killing of protected seabirds”.
The reconfiguration of a single stretch of power line across Kealia at the Kapa`a Stream valley from a vertical to a horizontal array along with “the belated modification of lights at Port Allen, and continuing to fund the SOS program are the only minimization actions KIUC has taken since the expiration of the second MOA in June 2006.”
According to the indictment:
Although additional mitigation activities were identified for KIUC, including on-the-ground colony management to improve reproduction numbers, KIUC has declined to take any further mitigation actions since the expiration of the second MOA in June 2006.
Finally, in October of 2007, “KIUC submitted a final long-term (50 year) HCP and an incidental take permit application in which it estimated that in 2006 KIUC structures took between 88 and 147 Newells' shearwaters”.
But in early 2008, the USFWS informed KIUC that the “incidental take permit application failed to meet issuance criteria in at least three areas.”
So on August 3, 2009, KIUC submitted a draft short-term (5 year) HCP and an incidental take permit application “in which it requested a permit authorizing the takings of up to 180 Newell's shearwaters each year (125 non-lethal takings and 55 deaths). On approximately September 9, 2009, the USFWS informed KIUC that, among other issues, “the proposed mitigation would not fully mitigate the anticipated takings.”
Perhaps the last straw in causing USFWS to forgo working with KIUC and to seek an indictment occurred on December 29, 2009, when
a Laysan albatross on which there was a leg band, was electrocuted on KIUC power lines, causing a small power outage. KIUC staff found the bird and documented the electrocution, but did not notify authorities. KIUC has not modified or taken any action regarding the lines or poles found to be associated with this documented electrocution and does not have an Avian Protection Plan.
That led to the documentation of the 20 takings and so the 20 specific charges which are detailed in the indictment.
According to a press report KIUC says it “has been working diligently for the past decade with every state and federal government agency and other stakeholders to achieve workable solutions to protect endangered Hawaiian seabirds (and) has not violated the criminal provisions of either the ESA or the MBTA and will now, as a result of the Justice Department’s precipitous and ill-conceived decision to file criminal charges, fight this matter in the United States District Court before a jury of Hawai‘i’s residents who, unlike the Justice Department, will treat KIUC fairly and recognize that the cooperative — owned by the residents of Kaua‘i — is doing everything reasonably possible to protect the seabirds,”
See below for complete list of descriptions of documented “takes” that led to the 20 charged counts, sorted by location, as listed in the indictment.
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Takes - Power Lines at or near Kealia Beach
Between approximately June 9, 2005, and July 9, 2005, at least one live and four dead Newell's shearwaters were found downed near an array of KIUC power lines at Kealia Beach. KIUC's consultant was notified of these takings via electronic mail on or about June 22, 2005.
On or about August 5, 2006, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near KIUC power lines inland of Donkey Beach, near Kealia Beach
Between approximately October 15, 2006, and October 17, 2006, two dead Newell's shearwaters were found downed near KIUC power lines at Kealia Beach.
On or about May 18, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near an array of KIUC power lines at Kealia Beach.
On or about June 17, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near an array of KIUC power lines at Kealia Beach.
On or about June 27, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed in the vicinity of an array of KIUC power lines at Kealia Beach.
On or about August 5, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near KIUC power lines inland of Donkey Beach, near Kealia Beach.
On or about August 16, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed in the vicinity of an array of KIUC power lines at Kealia Beach.
On or about September 6, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near KIUC power lines inland of Donkey Beach, near Kealia Beach.
Takes - Power Lines in the Wailua River Valley
On or about July 3, 2005, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near an array of KIUC power lines that cross the Wailua River valley.
On or about October 21, 2006, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near an array of KIUC power lines that cross the Wailua River valley.
On or about June 16, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near an array of KIUC power lines that cross the Wailua River valley.
On or about October 18, 2009, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near an array of KIUC power lines that cross the Wailua River valley.
Takes - Power Lines Near Ele`ele
On or about July 16, 2005, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near a KIUC power line pole in Ele`ele.
On or about October 21, 2006, a witness observed a live Newell's shearwater collide with a KIUC power line near Hanapepe Stadium just southwest of Ele`ele and fall to the ground. The bird was recovered and found to be unfit for flight at that time.
On or about October 21, 2006, one live Newell's shearwater was found downed near KIUC power lines just southwest of Ele`ele.
On or about June 29, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near a KIUC power line pole in Ele`ele.
On or about July 18, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near KIUC power lines in Ele`ele.
On or about August 13, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near KIUC power lines in Ele`ele.
On or about October 19, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near KIUC power lines just east of Ele`ele.
Takes - Power Lines in the Waimea River Valley
On or about October 30, 2005, two dead Newell's shearwaters were found downed near KIUC powerlines in the Waimea River valley.
Takes - Power Lines in Kapa`a
On or about October 19, 2005, one dead and one live Newell's shearwaters were found downed near KIUC powerlines near Kapa`a Park.
Between approximately October 13, 2006, and October 20, 2006, six dead Newell's shearwaters were found downed near KIUC power lines in Kapa`a.
On or about October 21, 2009, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near a power pole in Kapa`a.
Takes - Power Lines across from Kauai Community College
On or about October 22, 2006, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near a power pole on the Kaumuali`i Highway across from Kauai Community College.
On or about October 17, 2009, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near a power pole on Kaumuali`i Highway across from Kauai Community College.
Takes - Lighting at the Port Allen Facility
In approximately December 2003, KIUC was reminded by the USFWS that the unshielded lights at its Port Allen facility presented a threat to Newell's shearwaters.
After being informed of Newell's shearwaters observed circling KIUC lights at its Port Allen facility, KIUC agreed in approximately August 2005 to take corrective action regarding unshielded lights still being used at its Port Allen facility.
As of October 2006, KIUC had not accomplished the agreed-upon corrective action at the Port Allen facility. The physical modifications were not commenced until 2007.
Between approximately October 17, 2006, and October 25, 2006, approximately nine Newell's shearwaters were found downed at KIUC's Port Allen facility.
Between approximately October 29, 2008, and October 29, 2009, approximately six Newell's shearwaters were found downed at or near KIUC's Port Allen facility.
Takings - Other KIUC Power Lines and Lighted Facilities
On or about May 30, 2006, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near a power pole south of Anahola.
On or about October 15, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near a power pole just west of Puhi.
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Mahalo to Charley Foster for providing the indictment paperwork and to Larry Geller for the OCR conversion.
DESPITE 1992 CONSENT DECREE AND 2001 MOA CO-OP STILL LACKS “TAKE” PERMIT, HABITAT CONSERVATION PLAN
(PNN) -- A federal grand jury indictment charging Kaua`i Island Utilities Co-op (KIUC) with 20 specific counts of “taking” of Newell's Townsend's Shearwaters and Laysan Albatrosses in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (META) contains a liturgy of allegations of foot-dragging on the part of KIUC and it’s predecessor Citizen’s Electric (CE) dating back to 1979.
It details how, despite a March 1992 consent decree with CE that resulted from a citizen’s lawsuit, to this day many of the decree-mandated recommendation and requirements contained in a study conducted by an advisory panel of scientists- entitled "The Causes and Prevention of 'Fall Out' of Kauai's Seabirds."- have gone unmet to this day.
After Hurricane `Iniki struck Kaua`i the indictment alleges that the following November although “(m)embers of the advisory panel of scientists voiced concerns at the time of the re-building that (a) vertical, net-like, configuration would increase collisions between Newell's shearwaters and power lines” CE refused to go with a “horizontal” configuration- as alternatives to stringing wires between vertical poles (such as "undergrounding") is called throughout the suit- when they rebuilt the grid system.
The indictment states that:
In December 1995, a two-volume study of Kauai's seabirds, including particularly the Newell's shearwater, was published and provided to KIUC's predecessor pursuant to the 1992 consent decree. Approximately 95 % of the fifty downed birds analyzed in the report were discovered within 20 meters of power lines owned and operated by KIUC's predecessor, and subsequently by KIUC. The study concluded in part that during the period 1980 - 1993, "utility structures" on Kauai were responsible for the deaths of between 122 and 350 Newell's shearwaters each year.
The scientific advisory panel publicly concluded, based on the 1995 study results, that, "[it has been confirmed that birds are hitting utility structures and dying." It further concluded that "estimates of downing and mortalities . . . [are] high enough to cause concern about their effects on the population." The 1995 study also concluded that "Summer mortality is correlated with power line arrays where many lines are greater than 15.2 meters high and particularly where they cross major river valleys serving as flyways." The study noted that birds are disoriented by outdoor lights and fall or collide with structures in their path, and that autumn fallout is correlated with lighting.
The study recommended the following actions, among others, to reduce take of seabirds; (1) position wires horizontally rather than as a vertical array on poles; (2) use poles no more than 15 meters high where birds are present; (3) reroute power lines so that they are protected by bridges and tall trees; (4) explore effectiveness of marker balls and bird diverters; (5) bury power lines that cross key flyways, and; (6) shield streetlights.
In the ensuing approximately seven years, KIUC's predecessor did not reposition existing wires, did not lower any existing poles, did not reroute any existing power lines so that they were protected by bridges or tall trees, did not bury any power lines, and failed to shield approximately 700 (or 23%), of its over 3,000 lights, including lights located in identified hot spots for seabirds. Some attempt was made to try bird diverters but it was abandoned. KIUC's predecessor installed some marker balls.
All of the 20 specific “takings”- the technical term for Newell's Townsend's shearwater (Puffinus auricularis newelli) and Laysan albatross (Diomedea immutabilis) deaths- listed in the indictment occurred between 2005 and 2009, 10 plus years after the 1995 report.
But the ’95 report was only the first. The indictment alleges that:
In 1998, another study was published .regarding power lines and seabirds on Kauai. The study recommended, among other things, that lines be arrayed horizontally, that large trees be planted to shield lines, and that lines currently located at river mouths on the coast be moved inland a few hundred meters. Neither KIUC nor its predecessor undertook any of these actions until October 2007 when it reconfigured a single stretch of line.
Despite the commonly held local belief that burying of all electrical wires on the island has been demanded by the federal government the indictment only talks about “bury(ing) power lines that cross key flyways”, and also calls for the use of bridges as well as trees which would be over 15 years old now if they had been planted in 1995 when the recommendations were made.
In the intervening six year CE did little or nothing so in June of 2001 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) sent a letter to CE urging it to apply for an incidental take permit its takings of seabirds under the ESA (Title 50, Code of Federal Regulations, Section 17.11) citing the relevant studies.
After no response, in March 2002 the USFWS again sent a letter to CE asking them to obtain an incidental take permit and initiate an interim conservation strategy "without delay."
Finally that May the CEO of CE and later KIUC acknowledged that shearwaters "have been subject to 'fallout' due to light attraction and collisions with structures, including electrical power lines." and in October signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the USFWS which was “expressly binding on KIUC upon its anticipated acquisition of KIUC's predecessor, which occurred three days later” according to the indictment.
The 2002 MOA was intended to assist KIUC in minimizing and mitigating its takings of the shearwater and albatross and to facilitate its submission of a Habitat Conservation Plan ("HCP") and acquisition of an incidental take permit.
But to this day KIUC has not produced an acceptable HCP nor has it obtained a take permit.
The MOA also called for interim “conservation measures” and delayed enforcement until May 2004 when the permit and plan were supposed to be completed.
The indictment states that:
The measures included inventorying and shielding all remaining unshielded lights, installing marker balls on key lines, and conducting certain on the ground management actions intended to offset take by KIUC facilities during the period covered by the 2002 MOA.
That was when the seven hot spots “known to be heavily used by Newell's shearwaters and other seabirds” were identified as the areas where KIUC had to alter those vertical arrangements for horizontal ones including Wailua at the Wailua River valley, Kealia at the Kapa`a Stream valley, Ele`ele at the Hanapepe River valley, and Waimea at the Waimea River valley.
The indictment says that:
KIUC has failed to modify any of the lines across these locations, except for a stretch of line at Kealia that it reconfigured in October 2007”. However, it did shield affiliated streetlights and place a total of 5 marker balls on three of the lines pursuant to express requirements of the 2002 MOA.
During the time period of the original MOA KIUC did take some measures after much back and forth with USFWS including the shielding of selected streetlights, the placement of five marker balls and finally the funding of the “Save Our Shearwater” (SOS) program which had been previously funded by the state including, the indictment says, for bird downed by KIUC's structures.
That was when the documentation of birds directly injured or killed by KIUC structures began to be documented and four were in 2004 according to the list of specific charges.
Another MOA was then signed in December of 2004 delaying enforcement again and requiring KIUC to continue “operating the SOS program and contribut(e) some funds for a limited predator control program”.
Significantly, around April of 2005 KIUC’s Chair received a copy of “Avian Protection Plan Guidelines” published by the Avian Power Line Interaction Committee, a utility industry group, containing “development and implementation of compliance plans to assist utilities in avoiding bird collisions and electrocutions and thus avoid violations of the MBTA, ESA and other bird-related statutes”.
But despite the provision of this “how to” manual, action on KIUC’s part was not forthcoming and bird deaths attributable to KIUC continued.
According to the indictment on June 1, 2006, the 2004 MOA expired without KIUC having submitted a final HCP or an application for an incidental take permit. In approximately November 2006, “KIUC stated in writing to the USFWS, for purposes of estimating the take that would need to be authorized by an incidental take permit, that, in 2005 alone, its electrical lines and associated structures resulted in the take of 31 to 88 Newell's Shearwaters. KIUC further estimated the take caused by KIUC power lines during 1980 -1993 at 122 to 350 birds per year.”
In exemplifying the amount of prodding needed to get KIUC to begin just one action- reducing “takings” in Port Allen- the indictment says.
In early 2007, KIUC began to modify and shield lights at its Port Allen facility following: (1) a 2003 notification from USFWS that the lights presented a threat to Newell's shearwaters; (2) a 2005 notification that Newell's shearwaters had been observed circling KIUC lights at the Port Allen Facility; (3) KIUC's previously unfulfilled August 2005 commitment to the USFWS to take corrective action regarding those lights; and, (4) the discovery in October 2006 of approximately ten Newell's shearwaters downed at or near KIUC's Port Allen facility.
That’s when the feds seemingly got fed up and on June 29, 2007, “KIUC issued a press release announcing that it had been notified on March 16, 2007, that it was the target of a federal investigation into the killing of protected seabirds”.
The reconfiguration of a single stretch of power line across Kealia at the Kapa`a Stream valley from a vertical to a horizontal array along with “the belated modification of lights at Port Allen, and continuing to fund the SOS program are the only minimization actions KIUC has taken since the expiration of the second MOA in June 2006.”
According to the indictment:
Although additional mitigation activities were identified for KIUC, including on-the-ground colony management to improve reproduction numbers, KIUC has declined to take any further mitigation actions since the expiration of the second MOA in June 2006.
Finally, in October of 2007, “KIUC submitted a final long-term (50 year) HCP and an incidental take permit application in which it estimated that in 2006 KIUC structures took between 88 and 147 Newells' shearwaters”.
But in early 2008, the USFWS informed KIUC that the “incidental take permit application failed to meet issuance criteria in at least three areas.”
So on August 3, 2009, KIUC submitted a draft short-term (5 year) HCP and an incidental take permit application “in which it requested a permit authorizing the takings of up to 180 Newell's shearwaters each year (125 non-lethal takings and 55 deaths). On approximately September 9, 2009, the USFWS informed KIUC that, among other issues, “the proposed mitigation would not fully mitigate the anticipated takings.”
Perhaps the last straw in causing USFWS to forgo working with KIUC and to seek an indictment occurred on December 29, 2009, when
a Laysan albatross on which there was a leg band, was electrocuted on KIUC power lines, causing a small power outage. KIUC staff found the bird and documented the electrocution, but did not notify authorities. KIUC has not modified or taken any action regarding the lines or poles found to be associated with this documented electrocution and does not have an Avian Protection Plan.
That led to the documentation of the 20 takings and so the 20 specific charges which are detailed in the indictment.
According to a press report KIUC says it “has been working diligently for the past decade with every state and federal government agency and other stakeholders to achieve workable solutions to protect endangered Hawaiian seabirds (and) has not violated the criminal provisions of either the ESA or the MBTA and will now, as a result of the Justice Department’s precipitous and ill-conceived decision to file criminal charges, fight this matter in the United States District Court before a jury of Hawai‘i’s residents who, unlike the Justice Department, will treat KIUC fairly and recognize that the cooperative — owned by the residents of Kaua‘i — is doing everything reasonably possible to protect the seabirds,”
See below for complete list of descriptions of documented “takes” that led to the 20 charged counts, sorted by location, as listed in the indictment.
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Takes - Power Lines at or near Kealia Beach
Between approximately June 9, 2005, and July 9, 2005, at least one live and four dead Newell's shearwaters were found downed near an array of KIUC power lines at Kealia Beach. KIUC's consultant was notified of these takings via electronic mail on or about June 22, 2005.
On or about August 5, 2006, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near KIUC power lines inland of Donkey Beach, near Kealia Beach
Between approximately October 15, 2006, and October 17, 2006, two dead Newell's shearwaters were found downed near KIUC power lines at Kealia Beach.
On or about May 18, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near an array of KIUC power lines at Kealia Beach.
On or about June 17, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near an array of KIUC power lines at Kealia Beach.
On or about June 27, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed in the vicinity of an array of KIUC power lines at Kealia Beach.
On or about August 5, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near KIUC power lines inland of Donkey Beach, near Kealia Beach.
On or about August 16, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed in the vicinity of an array of KIUC power lines at Kealia Beach.
On or about September 6, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near KIUC power lines inland of Donkey Beach, near Kealia Beach.
Takes - Power Lines in the Wailua River Valley
On or about July 3, 2005, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near an array of KIUC power lines that cross the Wailua River valley.
On or about October 21, 2006, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near an array of KIUC power lines that cross the Wailua River valley.
On or about June 16, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near an array of KIUC power lines that cross the Wailua River valley.
On or about October 18, 2009, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near an array of KIUC power lines that cross the Wailua River valley.
Takes - Power Lines Near Ele`ele
On or about July 16, 2005, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near a KIUC power line pole in Ele`ele.
On or about October 21, 2006, a witness observed a live Newell's shearwater collide with a KIUC power line near Hanapepe Stadium just southwest of Ele`ele and fall to the ground. The bird was recovered and found to be unfit for flight at that time.
On or about October 21, 2006, one live Newell's shearwater was found downed near KIUC power lines just southwest of Ele`ele.
On or about June 29, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near a KIUC power line pole in Ele`ele.
On or about July 18, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near KIUC power lines in Ele`ele.
On or about August 13, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near KIUC power lines in Ele`ele.
On or about October 19, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near KIUC power lines just east of Ele`ele.
Takes - Power Lines in the Waimea River Valley
On or about October 30, 2005, two dead Newell's shearwaters were found downed near KIUC powerlines in the Waimea River valley.
Takes - Power Lines in Kapa`a
On or about October 19, 2005, one dead and one live Newell's shearwaters were found downed near KIUC powerlines near Kapa`a Park.
Between approximately October 13, 2006, and October 20, 2006, six dead Newell's shearwaters were found downed near KIUC power lines in Kapa`a.
On or about October 21, 2009, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near a power pole in Kapa`a.
Takes - Power Lines across from Kauai Community College
On or about October 22, 2006, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near a power pole on the Kaumuali`i Highway across from Kauai Community College.
On or about October 17, 2009, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near a power pole on Kaumuali`i Highway across from Kauai Community College.
Takes - Lighting at the Port Allen Facility
In approximately December 2003, KIUC was reminded by the USFWS that the unshielded lights at its Port Allen facility presented a threat to Newell's shearwaters.
After being informed of Newell's shearwaters observed circling KIUC lights at its Port Allen facility, KIUC agreed in approximately August 2005 to take corrective action regarding unshielded lights still being used at its Port Allen facility.
As of October 2006, KIUC had not accomplished the agreed-upon corrective action at the Port Allen facility. The physical modifications were not commenced until 2007.
Between approximately October 17, 2006, and October 25, 2006, approximately nine Newell's shearwaters were found downed at KIUC's Port Allen facility.
Between approximately October 29, 2008, and October 29, 2009, approximately six Newell's shearwaters were found downed at or near KIUC's Port Allen facility.
Takings - Other KIUC Power Lines and Lighted Facilities
On or about May 30, 2006, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near a power pole south of Anahola.
On or about October 15, 2007, one dead Newell's shearwater was found downed near a power pole just west of Puhi.
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Mahalo to Charley Foster for providing the indictment paperwork and to Larry Geller for the OCR conversion.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
YOUR MONEY’S NO GOOD HERE
YOUR MONEY’S NO GOOD HERE: We’ve been popping Dramamine since Saturday in order to keep from getting dizzy and heaving from being incessantly spun by the three main candidates in Saturday’s 1st congressional district (CD) election with winner Djou’s and fellow Repugnacan’ts claiming a partisan sea change despite being outpolled by the two Dummocraps combined, Ed Case’s delusional sniveling email about the “dark side of politics” and his contention that he would have won if not for a million bucks in negative ads despite his creepy persona and blue dog credentials in a generally progressive district and Colleen Hanabusa’s disingenuous claim that the “grassroots” put her in second place rather than machinations of the fabled Inouye political apparatus (How’s that for a sentence).
But the results themselves seem to indicate one of two things- either the lemmings didn’t do a cliff dive to abandon Hanabusa for Case in order to try to assure a Dem win as we said might happen almost three weeks ago when the polls came out showing Case leading Hanabusa for second place or, most likely, the polls were wrong.
This is becoming a trend lately with unlisted cell phones and caller-ID-inspired screening and it didn’t help that it’s traditionally hard in Hawai`i to get older voters- especially among Japanese- to declare their preference and thus stay out of the “undecided” column.
Amidst all the post-polling punditry and dissection one factual difference in the way the elections bureau operated during the all-mail election hasn’t been mentioned much and could have really made a difference for Hanabusa and her party’s well oiled and notoriously effective “get out the vote (GOTV)” operation.
Buried deep inside a routine Derrick DePledge Honolulu Advertiser article during the closing days (sorry for the lack of link- just try finding the archives in the 'Tiser these days) was the information that, unlike in other elections, they were not providing lists of those who had voted and who hadn’t so far.
For those who have never seen a well funded party campaign up close- and it’s not just the Dems who do it these days as the ’02 and ‘06 Lingle campaigns will attest- here’s how it works.
Parties have lists of past supporters from other elections, all broken down by demographic info and starting with those lists teams of phone bankers spend their time early in the campaign identifying supporters by basically calling each one and, depending on how much money they have, going out in ever widening circles of possible supporters compiling their own list of “identified supporters” along with undecided “leaners” in their candidate’s direction.
Then, as the election approaches they call back the leaners to try to convince them but more importantly to call back their supporters to encourage them to vote absentee- or in the case of an all mail election to make sure they have voted- or make sure they are able to get to the polls on election day or, if not, offer to provide them with a ride.
Once someone appears on the list of those who have voted they are checked off and the calls end, winnowing down the list to those who haven’t voted for more follow-up calls.
On election day they send out the “poll watchers” to check the lists throughout the day at each polling site to check off those who have voted so the phone backers can make more last minute calls to, as they say, “get out the vote”.
You can see how important those lists are. And although the methodology is a bit different for an all-mail election, if anything the information on who voted and who didn’t can be even more effective in making sure pre-identified supporters send in their ballots if they haven’t already and you don’t waste your time- and therefore money- on those who have voted already.
Widespread press reports indicate that many Hanabusa supporters were angry at the aggressiveness of Hanabusa’s GOTV team, most likely because they had to just keep calling all supporters- even those who had voted- because there was no list available.
Whether the availability of the lists would have put Hanabusa over the top is questionable at best what with a 10% deficit to make up. But it may be a harbinger of a bigger lead going into the Dem primary in late September when she and Case go head to head.
But the results themselves seem to indicate one of two things- either the lemmings didn’t do a cliff dive to abandon Hanabusa for Case in order to try to assure a Dem win as we said might happen almost three weeks ago when the polls came out showing Case leading Hanabusa for second place or, most likely, the polls were wrong.
This is becoming a trend lately with unlisted cell phones and caller-ID-inspired screening and it didn’t help that it’s traditionally hard in Hawai`i to get older voters- especially among Japanese- to declare their preference and thus stay out of the “undecided” column.
Amidst all the post-polling punditry and dissection one factual difference in the way the elections bureau operated during the all-mail election hasn’t been mentioned much and could have really made a difference for Hanabusa and her party’s well oiled and notoriously effective “get out the vote (GOTV)” operation.
Buried deep inside a routine Derrick DePledge Honolulu Advertiser article during the closing days (sorry for the lack of link- just try finding the archives in the 'Tiser these days) was the information that, unlike in other elections, they were not providing lists of those who had voted and who hadn’t so far.
For those who have never seen a well funded party campaign up close- and it’s not just the Dems who do it these days as the ’02 and ‘06 Lingle campaigns will attest- here’s how it works.
Parties have lists of past supporters from other elections, all broken down by demographic info and starting with those lists teams of phone bankers spend their time early in the campaign identifying supporters by basically calling each one and, depending on how much money they have, going out in ever widening circles of possible supporters compiling their own list of “identified supporters” along with undecided “leaners” in their candidate’s direction.
Then, as the election approaches they call back the leaners to try to convince them but more importantly to call back their supporters to encourage them to vote absentee- or in the case of an all mail election to make sure they have voted- or make sure they are able to get to the polls on election day or, if not, offer to provide them with a ride.
Once someone appears on the list of those who have voted they are checked off and the calls end, winnowing down the list to those who haven’t voted for more follow-up calls.
On election day they send out the “poll watchers” to check the lists throughout the day at each polling site to check off those who have voted so the phone backers can make more last minute calls to, as they say, “get out the vote”.
You can see how important those lists are. And although the methodology is a bit different for an all-mail election, if anything the information on who voted and who didn’t can be even more effective in making sure pre-identified supporters send in their ballots if they haven’t already and you don’t waste your time- and therefore money- on those who have voted already.
Widespread press reports indicate that many Hanabusa supporters were angry at the aggressiveness of Hanabusa’s GOTV team, most likely because they had to just keep calling all supporters- even those who had voted- because there was no list available.
Whether the availability of the lists would have put Hanabusa over the top is questionable at best what with a 10% deficit to make up. But it may be a harbinger of a bigger lead going into the Dem primary in late September when she and Case go head to head.
Monday, May 24, 2010
MAYBE A WHACK WITH A 9-IRON WILL DO IT
MAYBE A WHACK WITH A 9-IRON WILL DO IT: Back in the late ‘80’s and early ‘90’s when the drive toward overdevelopment led to battles to stop construction of a plethora of golf courses such as those at the Westin and Hyatt, we used to half-joke that we only had one question for prospective council candidate... “Do you play golf?”.
So we really weren’t paying a lot of attention to a bill up for second and final reading Wednesday that would bring back lower rates at county’s Wailua Golf Course for non-residents after the number of rounds they played dropped severely since the rates were raised a year or so back.
But when the bill came to the council’s Parks and Transportation Committee it became apparent that tourists- especially those spending a month or more- were taking advantage of a loophole to get “local” rates by applying for and receiving a local driver’s license- currently the only requirement for “resident” rates- when they got here and changing it back when they got home.
So last Wednesday the committee added more requirements. After much wrangling over the legality of an amendment, with the assistance of County Attorney Al Castillo they decided that in addition to either a valid driver’s license or state ID with a local address- which was the source of the sole legal question asked- they would require either proof of having paid Hawai`i income tax or having actually voted in the last election or primary.
Problem is that the last bit- proof that one had voted in order to receive something of value (a lower rate)- is patently illegal.
It happens almost every election day. Some well meaning business owner or civic minded organization try to get people to vote by giving them a slice of pizza or some piece of junk if they show a “receipt” proving they voted.
That’s routinely followed by a press release from either the police chief or sometimes the attorney general warning that federal law prohibits anyone from providing something of value in exchange for one’s vote.
Although the reasoning behind the amendment wasn’t specifically stated it’s apparently because the same thing goes for proof of voter “registration” (as opposed to actually having voted) as for a driver’s licenses since all you need by law in Hawai`i to register to vote is an “intention” to make this your permanent home.
Offering a lower rate to play golf in exchange for showing you voted is plainly illegal. Even if you’re not paying someone to vote for a specific candidate it’s still “buying votes” and so, is prohibited.
You would think a county attorney- especially one like Castillo who sits before a live microphone and constantly interrupts meetings- without being recognized by the chair- for everything from admonishing members of the public to take their hats off to stifling discussion of bills by councilmembers- would know this and have said something, especially after signing off on legality of the amendment.
(Parenthetically, since his interruptions often raise points of parliamentary procedure-which is actually the county clerk’s job according to council rules- you would think that he would also know that interrupting the chair without being recognized is a violation of Roberts Rules of Order.)
You would also think that professional politicians, many of whom have served a decade or more and thus gone through five or more elections, would know that you can’t pay someone to vote.
And you would think that the county clerk- a person who was sitting right there and oversees both council services and elections- surely knows this and might have mentioned it.
But this is Kaua`i where voting irregularities are all part and parcel of a system that routinely turns a blind eye to irregularities like 2008’s “Dickie ‘Wala`ua’ Chang” listing on the ballot and many others.
So we really weren’t paying a lot of attention to a bill up for second and final reading Wednesday that would bring back lower rates at county’s Wailua Golf Course for non-residents after the number of rounds they played dropped severely since the rates were raised a year or so back.
But when the bill came to the council’s Parks and Transportation Committee it became apparent that tourists- especially those spending a month or more- were taking advantage of a loophole to get “local” rates by applying for and receiving a local driver’s license- currently the only requirement for “resident” rates- when they got here and changing it back when they got home.
So last Wednesday the committee added more requirements. After much wrangling over the legality of an amendment, with the assistance of County Attorney Al Castillo they decided that in addition to either a valid driver’s license or state ID with a local address- which was the source of the sole legal question asked- they would require either proof of having paid Hawai`i income tax or having actually voted in the last election or primary.
Problem is that the last bit- proof that one had voted in order to receive something of value (a lower rate)- is patently illegal.
It happens almost every election day. Some well meaning business owner or civic minded organization try to get people to vote by giving them a slice of pizza or some piece of junk if they show a “receipt” proving they voted.
That’s routinely followed by a press release from either the police chief or sometimes the attorney general warning that federal law prohibits anyone from providing something of value in exchange for one’s vote.
Although the reasoning behind the amendment wasn’t specifically stated it’s apparently because the same thing goes for proof of voter “registration” (as opposed to actually having voted) as for a driver’s licenses since all you need by law in Hawai`i to register to vote is an “intention” to make this your permanent home.
Offering a lower rate to play golf in exchange for showing you voted is plainly illegal. Even if you’re not paying someone to vote for a specific candidate it’s still “buying votes” and so, is prohibited.
You would think a county attorney- especially one like Castillo who sits before a live microphone and constantly interrupts meetings- without being recognized by the chair- for everything from admonishing members of the public to take their hats off to stifling discussion of bills by councilmembers- would know this and have said something, especially after signing off on legality of the amendment.
(Parenthetically, since his interruptions often raise points of parliamentary procedure-which is actually the county clerk’s job according to council rules- you would think that he would also know that interrupting the chair without being recognized is a violation of Roberts Rules of Order.)
You would also think that professional politicians, many of whom have served a decade or more and thus gone through five or more elections, would know that you can’t pay someone to vote.
And you would think that the county clerk- a person who was sitting right there and oversees both council services and elections- surely knows this and might have mentioned it.
But this is Kaua`i where voting irregularities are all part and parcel of a system that routinely turns a blind eye to irregularities like 2008’s “Dickie ‘Wala`ua’ Chang” listing on the ballot and many others.
Friday, May 21, 2010
AND AROUND THE FIRST TURN THEY COME
AND AROUND THE FIRST TURN THEY COME: Though a few filings for office are trickling in on Kaua`i this will be the last such leisurely May after a bill to move up the primary elections- and therefore the filing deadline- was signed this week.
From now on the second Saturday in August will replace the second Saturday in September for the “primaries” and that will push up the usual filing deadline in the third week in July to the first Tuesday in June.
So far, as of today, no one has even pulled papers- a term used for those who have taken out their papers but have not filed them- to challenge Mayor Bernard Carvalho who filed his papers on April 13.
Of the 12 who have pulled papers to run for county council- including only four incumbents- only 5 have actually filed, including incumbent Jay Furfaro who quietly filed to run for council on May 6 putting to rest any rumors that he might challenge Carvalho for the mayor’s job and possibly signaling that indeed Council Chair Kaipo Asing might be stepping down, leaving Furfaro to take the council reins after his challenge to Asing’ leadership after the 2008 election.
The others who have filed for council include former Planning Commissioner Theodore Daligdig III who filed on May 7, former Councilperson Mel Rapozo who filed back on February 2, social worker and community organizer and 2008 candidate Kipukai L Kualii, and planning consultant and newcomer Nadine K. Nakamura,
Those who have pulled papers but haven’t as yet filed include current councilpersons Tim L Bynum, Dick S Chang Jr and Derek Kawakami and former Mayor and Councilperson Joann Yukimura, along with Dennis M Fowler, Ronald J Horoshko and Edgar S Justus.
One surprise is that no one has even pulled papers for the one Kaua`i state senate slot, including former councilperson Ronald Kouchi who has announced he will run.
Although no one has as yet filed to run for any of the three state house districts incumbent District 14 Representative Hermina M “Mina” Morita has pulled her papers to run as a Democrat.
In the 15th District, incumbent Democrat James Tokioka, Republican Lawrence Fillhart, and John Hoff, a perennial Republican candidate this time running under the Non-Partisan banner, have all pulled papers but have not filed yet.
The 16th District finds a potential primary battle with a challenge to incumbent Roland Diaz Sagum coming from fellow Democrat Daynette Morikawa- neither of whom has filed the papers they pulled.
Pretty slim pickin’s so far this year although in the case of the council it’s understandable given that seemingly no council members are itching for higher office and two ex-members are running along with a former strong candidate in Kualii- who finished just out of the running in ’08- and given an expected strong showing from the well-connected Nakamura who has had lots of buzz among progressives.
It’s a shame though that strong challenges aren’t apparently on the horizon for Tokioka and Sagum who are seen as vulnerable by many.
Carvalho who has been amassing a war chest and union endorsements to rival some mayors of “olden days” doesn’t seem to have any challengers as yet, even though many of his controversial decisions and various faux pas have disillusioned many of those who said they would “give him a chance” but have vowed to “never make that mistake again.”
Information on how to run along with papers to do so are available at county clerk’s office, at 3371-A Wilcox Road in Nawiliwili, or by calling 241-4188.
From now on the second Saturday in August will replace the second Saturday in September for the “primaries” and that will push up the usual filing deadline in the third week in July to the first Tuesday in June.
So far, as of today, no one has even pulled papers- a term used for those who have taken out their papers but have not filed them- to challenge Mayor Bernard Carvalho who filed his papers on April 13.
Of the 12 who have pulled papers to run for county council- including only four incumbents- only 5 have actually filed, including incumbent Jay Furfaro who quietly filed to run for council on May 6 putting to rest any rumors that he might challenge Carvalho for the mayor’s job and possibly signaling that indeed Council Chair Kaipo Asing might be stepping down, leaving Furfaro to take the council reins after his challenge to Asing’ leadership after the 2008 election.
The others who have filed for council include former Planning Commissioner Theodore Daligdig III who filed on May 7, former Councilperson Mel Rapozo who filed back on February 2, social worker and community organizer and 2008 candidate Kipukai L Kualii, and planning consultant and newcomer Nadine K. Nakamura,
Those who have pulled papers but haven’t as yet filed include current councilpersons Tim L Bynum, Dick S Chang Jr and Derek Kawakami and former Mayor and Councilperson Joann Yukimura, along with Dennis M Fowler, Ronald J Horoshko and Edgar S Justus.
One surprise is that no one has even pulled papers for the one Kaua`i state senate slot, including former councilperson Ronald Kouchi who has announced he will run.
Although no one has as yet filed to run for any of the three state house districts incumbent District 14 Representative Hermina M “Mina” Morita has pulled her papers to run as a Democrat.
In the 15th District, incumbent Democrat James Tokioka, Republican Lawrence Fillhart, and John Hoff, a perennial Republican candidate this time running under the Non-Partisan banner, have all pulled papers but have not filed yet.
The 16th District finds a potential primary battle with a challenge to incumbent Roland Diaz Sagum coming from fellow Democrat Daynette Morikawa- neither of whom has filed the papers they pulled.
Pretty slim pickin’s so far this year although in the case of the council it’s understandable given that seemingly no council members are itching for higher office and two ex-members are running along with a former strong candidate in Kualii- who finished just out of the running in ’08- and given an expected strong showing from the well-connected Nakamura who has had lots of buzz among progressives.
It’s a shame though that strong challenges aren’t apparently on the horizon for Tokioka and Sagum who are seen as vulnerable by many.
Carvalho who has been amassing a war chest and union endorsements to rival some mayors of “olden days” doesn’t seem to have any challengers as yet, even though many of his controversial decisions and various faux pas have disillusioned many of those who said they would “give him a chance” but have vowed to “never make that mistake again.”
Information on how to run along with papers to do so are available at county clerk’s office, at 3371-A Wilcox Road in Nawiliwili, or by calling 241-4188.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
PAY THE LADY
PAY THE LADY: The news that a federal grand jury has indicted Kaua`i Island Utilities Co-op (KIUC) for what the Honolulu Star Bulletin reports are “nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act and 10 counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act between June 2005 and December 2009” may be “stunning news” to some.
But not to the original "nitpickers" who cited the liability involving the lack of compliance with federal endangered species laws in calling for a severely reduced price when the politically- and some alleged monetarily- connected original members of the co-op board bought the company from Citizen’s Electric at an exorbitant price in the early ‘00’s.
It was one of many things- including the potential Superfund cleanup site under the `Ele`ele power plant- that caused some to say that they should have actually paid us to take it off their hands, especially considering the extremely illustrative fact that there were no other buyers at any price on the horizon at the time and Citizen’s was an extremely motivated seller.
They also cited the above-ground rebuild of the grid after Hurricane `Iniki - which Kaua`i ratepayers alone were later forced to bear the cost of- as a kind of double whammy, predicting that it would come back to bite us in the butt when we were forced by the feds to underground them.
That’s part of the reason KIUC has been battling for the last decade to try to get out from under what should never have been “our” financial burden.
KIUC’s statement tries to make it sound like they’ve done every thing in their power to comply saying, according to press reports of a “press release” that does not appear at their web site:
KIUC is deeply disappointed by the Justice Department's decision to file charges in a matter where KIUC has been working diligently for the past decade with every state and federal government agency and other stakeholders to achieve workable solutions to protect endangered Hawaiian seabirds.
Note how it says they’ve been “working diligently... to achieve a workable solution” not to comply since their “workable solution” has been doing nothing but stalling and complaining.
“We told you so” aside, the one thing that stands out here is many of the “screw the birds” comments on the various on-line press accounts from mainland settlers whose usual invader cultural supremacist “screw your host culture” spiel causes them to, on one hand scream about putting a bunch of damned Hawaiian birds ahead of the needs of their ever-expanding need for exponentially increasing consumption, yet on the other bemoan the very supremacy of the federal government that their precious statehood bestows.
The most galling part is that we’ll end up paying to bring the offending poles, power lines, structures and utility owned and operated streetlights into compliance one way or another but, according to the accounts of KIUC’s attorney’s response, only after we spend an inordinate amount of money trying to fight the charges and also defend the suit brought in March by David Henkin, a lawyer for Earthjustice. against KIUC and the St. Regis Hotel in Princeville.
That’s something we can do something about since, even though the decision to fight both the criminal and civil charges has been presented as a done deal, KIUC is a co-op where the electricity consumers supposedly have some say over decisions made by an elected board.
Board members would do well to read what Joan Conrow, who has been on top of the story for many months now, wrote today about possible penalties:
(W)e’re talking fines of up to $50,000 per bird, and KIUC already has acknowledged that its power lines kill 87 adults per year (and t)he law also provides for imprisonment of up to a year.(emphasis added).
It might pay to remind your local co-op board member of both their fiduciary and non-fiduciary responsibilities.
Even if KIUC doesn’t comply just because it’s the right thing to do it might be time to do it to cut the ratepayers’ losses and negotiate a settlement of the fines for what the Earthjustice suit says are an estimated “300 or more birds a year (that) are killed or injured by streetlights and utility wires” as part of a full comprehensive compliance agreement with the Department of Justice.
Otherwise we’ll be paying not just for the undergrounding but potentially millions in legal fees and the full amount of fines since no one is apparently claiming we have a legal leg to stand on.
But not to the original "nitpickers" who cited the liability involving the lack of compliance with federal endangered species laws in calling for a severely reduced price when the politically- and some alleged monetarily- connected original members of the co-op board bought the company from Citizen’s Electric at an exorbitant price in the early ‘00’s.
It was one of many things- including the potential Superfund cleanup site under the `Ele`ele power plant- that caused some to say that they should have actually paid us to take it off their hands, especially considering the extremely illustrative fact that there were no other buyers at any price on the horizon at the time and Citizen’s was an extremely motivated seller.
They also cited the above-ground rebuild of the grid after Hurricane `Iniki - which Kaua`i ratepayers alone were later forced to bear the cost of- as a kind of double whammy, predicting that it would come back to bite us in the butt when we were forced by the feds to underground them.
That’s part of the reason KIUC has been battling for the last decade to try to get out from under what should never have been “our” financial burden.
KIUC’s statement tries to make it sound like they’ve done every thing in their power to comply saying, according to press reports of a “press release” that does not appear at their web site:
KIUC is deeply disappointed by the Justice Department's decision to file charges in a matter where KIUC has been working diligently for the past decade with every state and federal government agency and other stakeholders to achieve workable solutions to protect endangered Hawaiian seabirds.
Note how it says they’ve been “working diligently... to achieve a workable solution” not to comply since their “workable solution” has been doing nothing but stalling and complaining.
“We told you so” aside, the one thing that stands out here is many of the “screw the birds” comments on the various on-line press accounts from mainland settlers whose usual invader cultural supremacist “screw your host culture” spiel causes them to, on one hand scream about putting a bunch of damned Hawaiian birds ahead of the needs of their ever-expanding need for exponentially increasing consumption, yet on the other bemoan the very supremacy of the federal government that their precious statehood bestows.
The most galling part is that we’ll end up paying to bring the offending poles, power lines, structures and utility owned and operated streetlights into compliance one way or another but, according to the accounts of KIUC’s attorney’s response, only after we spend an inordinate amount of money trying to fight the charges and also defend the suit brought in March by David Henkin, a lawyer for Earthjustice. against KIUC and the St. Regis Hotel in Princeville.
That’s something we can do something about since, even though the decision to fight both the criminal and civil charges has been presented as a done deal, KIUC is a co-op where the electricity consumers supposedly have some say over decisions made by an elected board.
Board members would do well to read what Joan Conrow, who has been on top of the story for many months now, wrote today about possible penalties:
(W)e’re talking fines of up to $50,000 per bird, and KIUC already has acknowledged that its power lines kill 87 adults per year (and t)he law also provides for imprisonment of up to a year.(emphasis added).
It might pay to remind your local co-op board member of both their fiduciary and non-fiduciary responsibilities.
Even if KIUC doesn’t comply just because it’s the right thing to do it might be time to do it to cut the ratepayers’ losses and negotiate a settlement of the fines for what the Earthjustice suit says are an estimated “300 or more birds a year (that) are killed or injured by streetlights and utility wires” as part of a full comprehensive compliance agreement with the Department of Justice.
Otherwise we’ll be paying not just for the undergrounding but potentially millions in legal fees and the full amount of fines since no one is apparently claiming we have a legal leg to stand on.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
HOCUS JOKUS
HOCUS JOKUS: Two weeks ago today we let loose on the homophobic religious community and their disingenuous shift from defense of the word “marriage” in 1998 to a slimy attempt to conflate civil unions with their precious “M” word today and the way the corporate media contributed to this, having previously cited a post by Honolulu Advertiser columnist Dave Shapiro as an example.
We said it gave Governor Linda “Dash to the Right” Lingle a way out of her 2002 campaign statement saying she supported domestic partnerships paving the way to an expected veto of HB 444, the civil unions bill.
Now, after Lingle said to a rabid hate group- the GOP state convention- this weekend that civil union is just another word for marriage it seems Shapiro is beginning to get the message saying her statement “would seem to end speculation about whether she intends to veto HB 444... By defining HB 444 as equivalent to marriage rather than domestic partnerships, she appears to be laying the groundwork for a veto that she can argue is consistent with her 2002 statement”.
In our May 4 post we attempted to lay out the real history of the way the bigot community had slithered into a redux rewrite of the ’98 debacle.
While falsely conflating “civil unions” and “same gender marriage” in the same breath they’ve drawn a line between the terms “domestic partnership” and “civil unions”- a conflation that in actuality was just an evolution of terminology... a distinction without a difference.
In perusing the comments on Shapiro’s own apparent evolution we came upon a pair that we thought were superior in clarity and historic value describing much the same thing we tried to get across a couple of weeks ago.
So since it’s getting harder to type with every character we’re re-posting a couple of blurbs from our friend “Kolea” today in hopes that his clarity can provide assistance in the coming months as the struggle for civil rights for same gender couples moves from the legislative to the judicial stage.
First he addresses the contention that there’s no difference between marriage and civil unions- the contention that members of the civil rights movement are somehow the ones playing word games in trying to pass a same gender marriage measure by calling it civil unions.
(edited for typos/spelling)
There is no ambiguity in the bill. It basically says that couples in a civil union shall have all the rights and responsibilities of marriage under state law. The real legal differences are that CUs will not be recognized by Federal law and in most other states. This last point is not a minor consideration. A couple married in Hawaii would have their marriage recognized in other states, so common property laws, visitation rights, inheritance, etc are portable. When a married couple from Hawaii moves to another state and, tens years down the road decide to split up, there is a well-defined legal structure for dissolving that relationship, the divorce laws. Not so with civil unions.
The civil union advocates are not being "crafty" about any of this. They WANT full marriage equality. All couples, regardless of sexual orientation, should be married under the same law. No "Separate But Equal." And no "Separate But Unequal."
But because social conservatives are irrationally attached to the word "marriage" and resist extending it to same sex couples, the Civil Union advocates decided a couple of years ago to postpone the demand for full marriage equality and accept the lesser rights of "Civil Unions" AS A STEP TOWARDS FULL MARRIAGE EQUALITY.
So rather than being "crafty" or dishonest, the advocates were making a concession to social conservatives in the hopes they would be mollified. 18 months is a long time, but prior to the start of the 2009 legislative session, it was extremely common for many conservatives to say about the issue:
"I am willing to support equal rights to gay couples, but why do they INSIST upon calling it 'marriage'? Marriage is only for a man and a woman. They should call it something else."
Once GLBT community acceded to that demand in the hopes of a compromise, the Right shifted their position and started saying, "Aha! These crafty gays are playing word games! They are still demanding marriage, but under a different name!"
I'll let you in on a secret plot. Marriage equality advocates are willing to accept civil unions as a temporary settlement. It is their belief, it is also MY belief, that civil unions will grant meaningful rights to gay and lesbian couples now, that the vast majority of "straight" people will come to recognize gay couples as their friends and neighbors rather than some scary or weird "other," and acceptance of full marriage equality will quickly become the dominant attitude in the community.
Then he gives the background of the real apparent disingenuity in many of the statements made back in ’98 as opposed to those from the same people now.
Dave,
While I agree with your overall account, I think you are making more of a distinction between civil unions and "domestic partnerships" than was understood at the time of Lingle's promise to the gay and lesbian community in 2002. The terms have evolved and become distinct in Hawaii in only the last few years. In the 90s, the "some of the rights" package was called "reciprocal beneficiaries," and "domestic partnership" was a stronger concept, meaning, essentially, all the rights and benefits of marriage but without the title. In some states, the law reflects this and "domestic partnership" is exactly equivalent to what we are now calling "civil unions in Hawaii.
Since we are engaging in time travel in order to understand the context of her pledge, readers might be surprised to know that as recently as 2002, all three major candidates for Governor: Case, Hirono and Lingle, were actively courting the leadership of the gay and lesbian community.
During the fight over the 1998 constitutional amendment on marriage, Case and Hirono had both been strong defenders of equal marriage rights. Lingle had NOT been. But Lingle still had a strong core group of lesbian activists who were personally committed to her and the issue of who the community would support was very much in contention.
A series of presentations were made at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center by the candidates. At her presentation, Lingle was questioned about the constitutional amendment and whether she would veto a bill for same sex marriage if it were to cross her desk. She said she would not support same sex marriage but if the legislature were to pass a domestic partnership bill and it came across her desk, she would allow it to become law without her signature.
Again, what was meant by "domestic partnership" in those days was the same thing as what is currently being called "civil unions." Lingle's promise was not just another campaign pledge, it was an explicit promise made to a specific group of people, some of whom went on to work hard for her election. After the election, she did support efforts to create a local chapter of a gay GOP organization, the Log Cabin Republicans, even featuring a speaker from the organization at a GOP Hawaii state convention.
But those were different times. Lingle was first elected as a moderate, even "liberal" Republican. There is very little tolerance today in the national GOP and that has spread to Hawaii, where the moderates have traditionally dominated the party leadership and membership. They are now laying low, hiding their beliefs, going along with the enraged right wing. There are a few noble exceptions, but Lingle is not one of them.
Lingle's betrayal of her campaign promise is just confirming the cynicism of people who had relied upon her word. In the last few months, I have heard gay activists repeatedly say they expected her, in the final lonely minute, to remain true to her promise and her inner truth.
She is not just breaking a campaign pledge. If she vetoes this, she is betraying her sisters who supported her, defended her and worked hard for her election. I think her ambitions for success in an ever more reactionary national GOP will trump the public pledge she made to those sisters in that room, back in 2002.
We said it gave Governor Linda “Dash to the Right” Lingle a way out of her 2002 campaign statement saying she supported domestic partnerships paving the way to an expected veto of HB 444, the civil unions bill.
Now, after Lingle said to a rabid hate group- the GOP state convention- this weekend that civil union is just another word for marriage it seems Shapiro is beginning to get the message saying her statement “would seem to end speculation about whether she intends to veto HB 444... By defining HB 444 as equivalent to marriage rather than domestic partnerships, she appears to be laying the groundwork for a veto that she can argue is consistent with her 2002 statement”.
In our May 4 post we attempted to lay out the real history of the way the bigot community had slithered into a redux rewrite of the ’98 debacle.
While falsely conflating “civil unions” and “same gender marriage” in the same breath they’ve drawn a line between the terms “domestic partnership” and “civil unions”- a conflation that in actuality was just an evolution of terminology... a distinction without a difference.
In perusing the comments on Shapiro’s own apparent evolution we came upon a pair that we thought were superior in clarity and historic value describing much the same thing we tried to get across a couple of weeks ago.
So since it’s getting harder to type with every character we’re re-posting a couple of blurbs from our friend “Kolea” today in hopes that his clarity can provide assistance in the coming months as the struggle for civil rights for same gender couples moves from the legislative to the judicial stage.
First he addresses the contention that there’s no difference between marriage and civil unions- the contention that members of the civil rights movement are somehow the ones playing word games in trying to pass a same gender marriage measure by calling it civil unions.
(edited for typos/spelling)
There is no ambiguity in the bill. It basically says that couples in a civil union shall have all the rights and responsibilities of marriage under state law. The real legal differences are that CUs will not be recognized by Federal law and in most other states. This last point is not a minor consideration. A couple married in Hawaii would have their marriage recognized in other states, so common property laws, visitation rights, inheritance, etc are portable. When a married couple from Hawaii moves to another state and, tens years down the road decide to split up, there is a well-defined legal structure for dissolving that relationship, the divorce laws. Not so with civil unions.
The civil union advocates are not being "crafty" about any of this. They WANT full marriage equality. All couples, regardless of sexual orientation, should be married under the same law. No "Separate But Equal." And no "Separate But Unequal."
But because social conservatives are irrationally attached to the word "marriage" and resist extending it to same sex couples, the Civil Union advocates decided a couple of years ago to postpone the demand for full marriage equality and accept the lesser rights of "Civil Unions" AS A STEP TOWARDS FULL MARRIAGE EQUALITY.
So rather than being "crafty" or dishonest, the advocates were making a concession to social conservatives in the hopes they would be mollified. 18 months is a long time, but prior to the start of the 2009 legislative session, it was extremely common for many conservatives to say about the issue:
"I am willing to support equal rights to gay couples, but why do they INSIST upon calling it 'marriage'? Marriage is only for a man and a woman. They should call it something else."
Once GLBT community acceded to that demand in the hopes of a compromise, the Right shifted their position and started saying, "Aha! These crafty gays are playing word games! They are still demanding marriage, but under a different name!"
I'll let you in on a secret plot. Marriage equality advocates are willing to accept civil unions as a temporary settlement. It is their belief, it is also MY belief, that civil unions will grant meaningful rights to gay and lesbian couples now, that the vast majority of "straight" people will come to recognize gay couples as their friends and neighbors rather than some scary or weird "other," and acceptance of full marriage equality will quickly become the dominant attitude in the community.
Then he gives the background of the real apparent disingenuity in many of the statements made back in ’98 as opposed to those from the same people now.
Dave,
While I agree with your overall account, I think you are making more of a distinction between civil unions and "domestic partnerships" than was understood at the time of Lingle's promise to the gay and lesbian community in 2002. The terms have evolved and become distinct in Hawaii in only the last few years. In the 90s, the "some of the rights" package was called "reciprocal beneficiaries," and "domestic partnership" was a stronger concept, meaning, essentially, all the rights and benefits of marriage but without the title. In some states, the law reflects this and "domestic partnership" is exactly equivalent to what we are now calling "civil unions in Hawaii.
Since we are engaging in time travel in order to understand the context of her pledge, readers might be surprised to know that as recently as 2002, all three major candidates for Governor: Case, Hirono and Lingle, were actively courting the leadership of the gay and lesbian community.
During the fight over the 1998 constitutional amendment on marriage, Case and Hirono had both been strong defenders of equal marriage rights. Lingle had NOT been. But Lingle still had a strong core group of lesbian activists who were personally committed to her and the issue of who the community would support was very much in contention.
A series of presentations were made at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center by the candidates. At her presentation, Lingle was questioned about the constitutional amendment and whether she would veto a bill for same sex marriage if it were to cross her desk. She said she would not support same sex marriage but if the legislature were to pass a domestic partnership bill and it came across her desk, she would allow it to become law without her signature.
Again, what was meant by "domestic partnership" in those days was the same thing as what is currently being called "civil unions." Lingle's promise was not just another campaign pledge, it was an explicit promise made to a specific group of people, some of whom went on to work hard for her election. After the election, she did support efforts to create a local chapter of a gay GOP organization, the Log Cabin Republicans, even featuring a speaker from the organization at a GOP Hawaii state convention.
But those were different times. Lingle was first elected as a moderate, even "liberal" Republican. There is very little tolerance today in the national GOP and that has spread to Hawaii, where the moderates have traditionally dominated the party leadership and membership. They are now laying low, hiding their beliefs, going along with the enraged right wing. There are a few noble exceptions, but Lingle is not one of them.
Lingle's betrayal of her campaign promise is just confirming the cynicism of people who had relied upon her word. In the last few months, I have heard gay activists repeatedly say they expected her, in the final lonely minute, to remain true to her promise and her inner truth.
She is not just breaking a campaign pledge. If she vetoes this, she is betraying her sisters who supported her, defended her and worked hard for her election. I think her ambitions for success in an ever more reactionary national GOP will trump the public pledge she made to those sisters in that room, back in 2002.
Monday, May 17, 2010
AND YOU CAN QUOTE THAT
AND YOU CAN QUOTE THAT: After submitting to a shave and a bone cut (40,000 bits) to rid us of scapular-acromion and clavicular bone spurs inside our other (right) shoulder last Thursday- sans last September’s titanium-screw rotator cuff repair which, with complications, took six months to sort-of heal up, “fixing” our left shoulder)- we’ve had a lot of spare time for one of our favorite activites this past weekend... perusing the movable feast of on-line news from across the world.
On Sunday we had even more time than expected after turning to our local Kaua`i newspaper and finding, after one brief shining moment in which its content approximated a real newspaper, they’ve hit rock bottom again and begun a new era of incompetent, kissy-faced, fluff and puff, thus regaining their late-‘80’s through mid-‘00’ moniker The Garbage Island.
This is the actual list of headlines which passed for Sunday’s entire on-line local “news” section (note that the quotation marks on “news” are the kind you make in the air denoting that it’s anything but), each indicating pretty clearly the extent of the content of each:
KCC graduates offer hope, Obituaries for Sunday, May 16, 2010, Don’t let them forget it is your tax dollar (Lowell L. Kalapa’s usual drivel), Walkers show support for nonprofits, Volunteers’ aloha makes difference, Students celebrate the Earth, Kaua`i Sovereign Volunteers Award winners, Kaua`i residents graduate from University of Portland, Nutrition seminar set for Tuesday, Students help divert phone books from landfill, Free vehicle window tint inspections next week, Weekly Roadwork Index for Sunday, May 16, 2010, and Public Meetings for Sunday, May 16, 2010.
Rock bottom news can only be provided by rock bottom “writers” (again those air quotes): in this case 1) new guy Leo Azambuja, the language-challenged, rank-amateur government reporter we “mentioned” (yes again) a few weeks back, 2) Paul Curtis the oft fired and rehired “professional” (uh-huh) whose “please like me Mr. Newsmaker” reporting has been instrumental in the derivation of the Garbage Island label over the past couple for decades and 3) the always prolific Dennis Fujimoto who, though he’s been the paper’s photographer for decades so is of course the most literate among the current crop of crappy “correspondents” (of course).
But wait- on Sunday there’s a business news page, which this week, if it’s possible, was even more vapid and insipid than usual due to 4) our own Miss Malaprop, Coco Zickos who took an embrace the suck attitude toward our “flighty fluffmeister” review of her work as (here we go again) ‘Business Editor”
This week in addition to the always boring regurgitation of press releases in News & Notes for Sunday, May 16, 2010, People on the Move for Sunday, May 16, 2010, News & Events for Sunday, May 16, 2010 and People on the Move for Sunday, May 2, 2010 and another in her series of “huh?”, off-deadline-style meanderings, is a piece headlined Has Kaua`i seen the recession’s end?.
The use of a question in a news story headline and its place on the journalistic no-no list aside, Zickos’ “story” (you bet) and it’s content can be summed up in one hilarious “qualifying the previously unqualified- and doing so twice” second sentence, destined we hope to be saved by some professor for a J-school their list of howlers:
Apparently the recession is over, some economists say.
Or maybe, apparently, not.
Current Editor Nathan Eagle has a lot to answer for here although we’re not sure how much of a leash Publisher Randy Kozerski provides him. Based on his clear, decently informative although nothing-to-write-home-about, rather pedestrian coverage of the government beat- which preceded his stint as Editor- Eagle certainly knows his ass from his news-hole-in-the-ground in the journalism world.
Perhaps seeing the first enterprise reporting (and even on occasion investigative work) since the departure of legendary Editor Jean Holmes and her ace reporter Bill LeGro in 1982, made for delusional expectations on our part.
We’ve got to accept the fact that Mike Levine has gone to his reward over at Civil Beat, Now he’s busy schmoozing with paid lobbyists and candidate shills who’ve paid $20 to take turns on the soap box within the gated-community in what Larry Geller (see forth comment on article) theorizes is just an auto-renewal scam for CB (and EBay) owner Pierre Omidyar’s Pay-Pals’ test of a business model for paid, on-line-newspaper subscriptions (much like the Superferry was a model to sell the armed forced similar “littoral” boats.)
Everything old is new again... same as it ever was... but can’t anyone here play this game?
-----
Depending on our level of “discomfort”, frequency of follow-up with the Doc and the supply and effectiveness of these little white pills, we may or may not be, apparently some say, intermittent in posting over the next week or so.
(Pardon the interruption- try to do better next time- Nathan Eagle: go to your room).
On Sunday we had even more time than expected after turning to our local Kaua`i newspaper and finding, after one brief shining moment in which its content approximated a real newspaper, they’ve hit rock bottom again and begun a new era of incompetent, kissy-faced, fluff and puff, thus regaining their late-‘80’s through mid-‘00’ moniker The Garbage Island.
This is the actual list of headlines which passed for Sunday’s entire on-line local “news” section (note that the quotation marks on “news” are the kind you make in the air denoting that it’s anything but), each indicating pretty clearly the extent of the content of each:
KCC graduates offer hope, Obituaries for Sunday, May 16, 2010, Don’t let them forget it is your tax dollar (Lowell L. Kalapa’s usual drivel), Walkers show support for nonprofits, Volunteers’ aloha makes difference, Students celebrate the Earth, Kaua`i Sovereign Volunteers Award winners, Kaua`i residents graduate from University of Portland, Nutrition seminar set for Tuesday, Students help divert phone books from landfill, Free vehicle window tint inspections next week, Weekly Roadwork Index for Sunday, May 16, 2010, and Public Meetings for Sunday, May 16, 2010.
Rock bottom news can only be provided by rock bottom “writers” (again those air quotes): in this case 1) new guy Leo Azambuja, the language-challenged, rank-amateur government reporter we “mentioned” (yes again) a few weeks back, 2) Paul Curtis the oft fired and rehired “professional” (uh-huh) whose “please like me Mr. Newsmaker” reporting has been instrumental in the derivation of the Garbage Island label over the past couple for decades and 3) the always prolific Dennis Fujimoto who, though he’s been the paper’s photographer for decades so is of course the most literate among the current crop of crappy “correspondents” (of course).
But wait- on Sunday there’s a business news page, which this week, if it’s possible, was even more vapid and insipid than usual due to 4) our own Miss Malaprop, Coco Zickos who took an embrace the suck attitude toward our “flighty fluffmeister” review of her work as (here we go again) ‘Business Editor”
This week in addition to the always boring regurgitation of press releases in News & Notes for Sunday, May 16, 2010, People on the Move for Sunday, May 16, 2010, News & Events for Sunday, May 16, 2010 and People on the Move for Sunday, May 2, 2010 and another in her series of “huh?”, off-deadline-style meanderings, is a piece headlined Has Kaua`i seen the recession’s end?.
The use of a question in a news story headline and its place on the journalistic no-no list aside, Zickos’ “story” (you bet) and it’s content can be summed up in one hilarious “qualifying the previously unqualified- and doing so twice” second sentence, destined we hope to be saved by some professor for a J-school their list of howlers:
Apparently the recession is over, some economists say.
Or maybe, apparently, not.
Current Editor Nathan Eagle has a lot to answer for here although we’re not sure how much of a leash Publisher Randy Kozerski provides him. Based on his clear, decently informative although nothing-to-write-home-about, rather pedestrian coverage of the government beat- which preceded his stint as Editor- Eagle certainly knows his ass from his news-hole-in-the-ground in the journalism world.
Perhaps seeing the first enterprise reporting (and even on occasion investigative work) since the departure of legendary Editor Jean Holmes and her ace reporter Bill LeGro in 1982, made for delusional expectations on our part.
We’ve got to accept the fact that Mike Levine has gone to his reward over at Civil Beat, Now he’s busy schmoozing with paid lobbyists and candidate shills who’ve paid $20 to take turns on the soap box within the gated-community in what Larry Geller (see forth comment on article) theorizes is just an auto-renewal scam for CB (and EBay) owner Pierre Omidyar’s Pay-Pals’ test of a business model for paid, on-line-newspaper subscriptions (much like the Superferry was a model to sell the armed forced similar “littoral” boats.)
Everything old is new again... same as it ever was... but can’t anyone here play this game?
-----
Depending on our level of “discomfort”, frequency of follow-up with the Doc and the supply and effectiveness of these little white pills, we may or may not be, apparently some say, intermittent in posting over the next week or so.
(Pardon the interruption- try to do better next time- Nathan Eagle: go to your room).
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
(PNN) THREE BURIALS UNEARTHED BY COWS AT LEPEULI UNCEREMONIOUSLY REBURIED BY SHPD’S MCMAHON WITHOUT BURIAL COUNCIL NOTIFICATION.
THREE BURIALS UNEARTHED BY COWS AT LEPEULI UNCEREMONIOUSLY REBURIED BY SHPD’S MCMAHON WITHOUT BURIAL COUNCIL NOTIFICATION.
LETTER DETAILS HARASSMENT OF TOURISTS BY LAYMON CONTINUES ON DISPUTED TRAIL
(PNN) -- Three burials that were disinterred by Bruce Laymon's cattle operation on Waioli Corporation property at Lepeuli (Larsen’s Beach) and were unceremoniously moved and reinterred by State Historical Preservation Division (SHPD) Archeologist Nancy McMahon, according to a letter from McMahon to Hope Kallai of Malama Moloa`a.
And in other developments the harassment of tourists by Laymon continues according to 62-year-old “snowbird” tourist Dennis L. Bosio.
The re-burials were apparently done without any notification or processing by the Kaua`i Burial Council (KBC).
In response to a letter from Kallai detailing her discovery of the reburials including maps to the area of the apparent re-interment, McMahon wrote to Kallai on December 17, 2009
Hi Hope,
This looks like the reinterment location that Eddie Ayau former Burial Staff of SHPD and myself did after three individuals were discovered at the base of the trail in the sandy beach as someone cut the fence or it broke and cattle wandered the area, apparently following the trail.
Thanks I will take a look as soon as possible.
Nancy McMahon,
Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer
Archaeology and Historic Preservation Manager
State Archaeologist
According to a Sept 11, 2009 memo marked “confidential” and obtained by Kallai. McMahon wrote to the DLNR’s Sam Lemmo:
"In Field 12 near the shoreline Hawaiian burials were found when the cattle broke the fence and eroded a trail. The reinterment is just below the fence in the boulder area in a gully at the end of Larsen's Beach Trail. In this area we recommend hand clearing no machinery and little herbicide use."
According to Kallai the burials are part of an ancient Hawaiian village as determined by archeologist David Burney of the National Tropical Botanical Gardens who has done extensive work at the caves in Maha`ulepu.
According to minutes from a Na Ala Hele meeting in 1998 Burney said the site may be “the oldest archaeological site on Kauai ”.
Kallai says that despite the fact that “Dr. Dave Burney (NTBG) corroborated the area as a significant archaeological site, with at least 2 distinct habitation layers”- a fact he reported to Waioli shortly after Hurricane ‘Iniki- “no protective measures were instituted” and no environmental assessment, which would include cultural impacts under HRS 343, has ever been conducted.
Currently there is an appeal pending before the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) for a conservation district use permit (CDUP) Laymon has obtained to do work in the area to pasture cattle, as PNN reported last month.
The incident of harassment occurred on March 6 according to Bosio, when he and a friend were “on the lateral trail where the trail becomes a road” according to a letter written that day by Bosio and obtained by PNN.
The letter says:
This morning about 9:30am... (a) man who identified himself as Bruce Laymon got out of a dump truck and confronted me.
He said " you are on private property and you know it, I am going to take your picture and the next time we see you on our property we will have you arrested". He was agitated, threatening and confrontational. He did not take my picture at this time but did yell at some workers to remember me if I came back on their property.
He accused me of being part of the group vandalizing his equipment and taking pictures and stirring up trouble. I had no idea about the damage to the equipment until the afternoon when I got the newspaper and saw today’s story.
A little while later I walked back down south on the beach a hundred yards or so and was talking to 2 guys I see there alot. We were on the sand not too far from the grass line. The guy who said he was Bruce Laymon came down on to the sand and started yelling at me again. He took my picture with a disposable camera and asked me for my name. When I smiled for the picture he said, "you better watch out, you think this is funny." He was yelling about how he was going to have 50 Hawaiians down here next week and they were going to take the beach back. "You watch and see, we will run you haoli's (sic) out of here. That's all you fucking haoli's do is come down here, get naked, and leave all kinds of shit back here in woods." He also yelled about how his entire crew was family and that's why they were doing this work, to reclaim the beach for their family and the Hawaiians.
I tried to calm him down and talk to him but he was having none of that. He kept accusing me of stirring up trouble. He also said that I was spreading lies through the newspaper.
Nice aloha spirit,
dennis
But Bosio did not make the letter public until May 5th saying
I have waited this long to make this account public because at the time my wife and I had 3 weeks remaining of vacation, we were renting near the Larsens (sic) Beach road, we walked Koolau road and Larsen’s Beach access road daily and were afraid we would run into either Bruce Laymon or one of his hired hands again. He was very threatening.
He ended by saying:
The above is a true and honest narrative of my encounter on March 6, 2010.
When I was confronted I was on a trail that I have used hundreds of times over the past seven years. There was a large truck, several pickups, guys with chain saws, and other large machinery clearing right up to the beach sand. I did not think that was right. I had taken pictures of the clearing work previous days, shared them with locals, and at least one of my pictures was in The Garden Island newspaper. I don’t know how they got it.
My wife and I are 62 year old retirees and have been coming to Kauai each winter for a month or two. We have real reservations about spending our vacation dollars on Kauai in the future. Just the lodging and rental car taxes for our two month’s on island this year were over $1,300. Larsen’s Beach is a unique natural treasure and the Larsen’s Beach experience is one that attracts a great deal of tourist revenue to Kauai . I hope it is protected for future generations.
Dennis L. Bosio
Kallai’s research into the significant cultural activities at Lepeuli are summarized in a letter to Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chief Executive Officer Clyde Nāmu'o.
The letter details the history of the region and so the need for a cultural impact statement according to Kallai. For those with an interest it is reprinted in full below.
RE: Cultural Impact Assessment Request
CDUA Permit Application 3525
DOCARE KA 09-12
Lepeuli, Ko`olau District, Kauai
Aloha no Mr. Nāmu'o and OHA:
There is a very distressing situation in the Lepeuli ahupua`a, Ko`olau District, of Kauai . A Conservation District Use Application has been submitted by Paradise Ranch, LLC and its attorney, Lorna Nishimitsu. This ahupua`a was acquired by Abner Wilcox in 1851 (Land Grant 530 for 535 acres for $535.68), with reservations (Koe ke kuleana o na kanaka) for the following kuleana(see attached): Kamokuliu (0519), Koleaka (05020), Kawelo(09073) , Kalawa (09149), Luahine (10014 also RP 4233), Makulu (0000K01), and a 20 acre Land Grant to Kane (523 in 2 apana). These kuleana areas are proposed to be disked, fenced and cross fenced for pasturage for commercial cattle production.
The Lepeuli Ahupua`a in the Ko`olau District of Kauai was a densely occupied coastal community of several hundred Native Hawaiians for about a thousand years, with features including ancient habitation sites,`auwai, agricultural sites and lo`i kalo, mala of noni, wauke, and u`ala, ponds and fish ponds, heiau and pa, and burial sites of `iwi kupuna. Coastal Alaloa connected the inter-related ahuua`a of the Koolau District from Kealia to Hanalei, through neigh boring areas of Moloa`a, Ka`aka`aniu, Lepeuli, Waipake, Pila`a, Kahili,Namahana, Kilauea and Waiakalua. Waipake kuleana landholders had kula of wauke in Moloa`a, connected by the coastal Ala Loa. A houselot in a Ka`aka`aniu kuleana had lo`i kalo in Lepeuli, documenting the inter-connectedness of these coastal fishing and agricultural communities
Taro production continued in Lepeuli Stream valley until the mid-1930's, when it was replaced by rice grown by the Japanese famers of Waipake. Contact period historic features include a four-room school, church, cemetery, pasture lands and piggery, sugar plantation ditches, and railroad tracks and the summer house of the plantation luna, L. David Larsen.
There has been no archaeological or cultural impact assessment of the potential impacts of proposed Paradise Ranch project on Waioli Corporation lands. There has never been any survey or inventory of Lepeuli. Applicant is applying for federal funds through the EQIP conservation program, subject to National Environmental Policy Act, which requires an assessment of environmental injustice assessment for particular impacts to subsistence hunters and gathers, dis-advantaged economic groups, races and cultural minorities.
According to Articles IX and XII of the State Constitution and other state laws, the state requires government agencies to "promote and preserve cultural beliefs, practices, and resources of Native Hawaiians and other ethnic groups."
The Department of Health (DOH), Chapter 343, requires an Environmental Assessment of cultural resources in determining significance and potential impacts of a proposed project.
Lepeuli has significant cultural and historic resources. The Ka`aka`aniu Reef system is the most highly documented tended limu in Hawai`i Nei, still of great important to the local residents. According to the predictive model of nearby archaeological assessments in Waipake and Moloa`a Bay Ranch, habitation sites and agricultural developments are expected to be in the stream valley with dryland terracing and agriculture on the slopes. Ancient and earlier prehistoric sites are predicted to be under the kuleana land filings. The historic ala loa joined the coastal communities throughout the Ko`olau District from Kealia to Hanalei.
The large swells of early December, 2009 exposed a significant archaeological site overlooking the stream channel of (de-watered) Lepeuli Stream. I notified SHPD (see attached); they claim it as one of their re-interments (see attached) - but there are significant features and charcoal firepits. I don't believe Nancy McMahon has been out to take a look.
There must be an archaeological and cultural impact assessment of the potential impacts of this Paradise Ranch CDUA to the Native Hawaiian community and it's special cultural resources and practices, including religious, subsistence fishing and gathering, by considering the impact of agricultural runoff to the reef resources of Ka`aka`aniu and cattle upon the historic kuleana lands of native Hawaiians in Lepeuli. Historic use by Japanese workers of Kilauea Sugar Plantation is highly documented. The only current residents of Lepeuli are descendents of Ko` olau School students.
I read with great respect your comments on the Moloa`a Bay Ranch CDUA. This Paradise Ranch project is of greater (more habitation and cultural uses) or equal importance, yet the Hawaiian community was not included for comments. The only history (and wildlife biology) was done by the applicant's attorney. Most of the Anahola community (including traditional cultural users and lineal descendents) do not know about this project. Federal funds should not be used to close off access to this important reef system. Paradise Ranch should not be allowed to rip and disk kuleana sands and back dunes (to increase water percolation!). Mr. Laymon, (known to disturb resting places of `iwi kupuna in prior CD violations) has stated that he knows where there are native Hawaiian burials. Scary.
Attached is a section excerpted from the Paradise Ranch SMA application that really deserves serious scrutiny.
Mahalo for your immediate action on this request and for requiring a cultural impact and archaeological assessment prior to any more impacting actions on these precious ancient Hawaiian homes and Conservation District Lands. Please contact me if you need any more information. Thank you for taking immediate steps to protect these resources and keep our history alive.
Hope Kallai
There were kuleana reserved in Lepeuli and resided on by Native Hawaiians until the 1930-1940’s. There are plenty of records and rememberences of these people. There are lineal descendents in the area.
One kuleana holder questioned whether he had to still pay taxes to the konohiki after Wilcox got Grant 530 Plenty of Hawaiian presence. The remains of a population of several hundred people living in Lepeuli for perhaps a thousand years are in the sands and lands of Lepeuli – not just 3 individuals. Conversion of house lots of kuleana to pasture has potential to significantly impact preservation and salvage of significant cultural resources. Closure of an ancient trail to important cultural resources is unacceptable.
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has concerns with this project. Their comments have not been considered. There must be a culturally respectful plan for the re-burials; they must be offered protection from mechanized manipulation of the soil, herbicides and cattle manure. This is culturally and socially unconscionable. Burials in a commercial cow pasture! AUWE!
--------
We’re again forced to take a long weekend to take care of pressing matters. See ya Monday or so.
LETTER DETAILS HARASSMENT OF TOURISTS BY LAYMON CONTINUES ON DISPUTED TRAIL
(PNN) -- Three burials that were disinterred by Bruce Laymon's cattle operation on Waioli Corporation property at Lepeuli (Larsen’s Beach) and were unceremoniously moved and reinterred by State Historical Preservation Division (SHPD) Archeologist Nancy McMahon, according to a letter from McMahon to Hope Kallai of Malama Moloa`a.
And in other developments the harassment of tourists by Laymon continues according to 62-year-old “snowbird” tourist Dennis L. Bosio.
The re-burials were apparently done without any notification or processing by the Kaua`i Burial Council (KBC).
In response to a letter from Kallai detailing her discovery of the reburials including maps to the area of the apparent re-interment, McMahon wrote to Kallai on December 17, 2009
Hi Hope,
This looks like the reinterment location that Eddie Ayau former Burial Staff of SHPD and myself did after three individuals were discovered at the base of the trail in the sandy beach as someone cut the fence or it broke and cattle wandered the area, apparently following the trail.
Thanks I will take a look as soon as possible.
Nancy McMahon,
Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer
Archaeology and Historic Preservation Manager
State Archaeologist
According to a Sept 11, 2009 memo marked “confidential” and obtained by Kallai. McMahon wrote to the DLNR’s Sam Lemmo:
"In Field 12 near the shoreline Hawaiian burials were found when the cattle broke the fence and eroded a trail. The reinterment is just below the fence in the boulder area in a gully at the end of Larsen's Beach Trail. In this area we recommend hand clearing no machinery and little herbicide use."
According to Kallai the burials are part of an ancient Hawaiian village as determined by archeologist David Burney of the National Tropical Botanical Gardens who has done extensive work at the caves in Maha`ulepu.
According to minutes from a Na Ala Hele meeting in 1998 Burney said the site may be “the oldest archaeological site on Kauai ”.
Kallai says that despite the fact that “Dr. Dave Burney (NTBG) corroborated the area as a significant archaeological site, with at least 2 distinct habitation layers”- a fact he reported to Waioli shortly after Hurricane ‘Iniki- “no protective measures were instituted” and no environmental assessment, which would include cultural impacts under HRS 343, has ever been conducted.
Currently there is an appeal pending before the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) for a conservation district use permit (CDUP) Laymon has obtained to do work in the area to pasture cattle, as PNN reported last month.
The incident of harassment occurred on March 6 according to Bosio, when he and a friend were “on the lateral trail where the trail becomes a road” according to a letter written that day by Bosio and obtained by PNN.
The letter says:
This morning about 9:30am... (a) man who identified himself as Bruce Laymon got out of a dump truck and confronted me.
He said " you are on private property and you know it, I am going to take your picture and the next time we see you on our property we will have you arrested". He was agitated, threatening and confrontational. He did not take my picture at this time but did yell at some workers to remember me if I came back on their property.
He accused me of being part of the group vandalizing his equipment and taking pictures and stirring up trouble. I had no idea about the damage to the equipment until the afternoon when I got the newspaper and saw today’s story.
A little while later I walked back down south on the beach a hundred yards or so and was talking to 2 guys I see there alot. We were on the sand not too far from the grass line. The guy who said he was Bruce Laymon came down on to the sand and started yelling at me again. He took my picture with a disposable camera and asked me for my name. When I smiled for the picture he said, "you better watch out, you think this is funny." He was yelling about how he was going to have 50 Hawaiians down here next week and they were going to take the beach back. "You watch and see, we will run you haoli's (sic) out of here. That's all you fucking haoli's do is come down here, get naked, and leave all kinds of shit back here in woods." He also yelled about how his entire crew was family and that's why they were doing this work, to reclaim the beach for their family and the Hawaiians.
I tried to calm him down and talk to him but he was having none of that. He kept accusing me of stirring up trouble. He also said that I was spreading lies through the newspaper.
Nice aloha spirit,
dennis
But Bosio did not make the letter public until May 5th saying
I have waited this long to make this account public because at the time my wife and I had 3 weeks remaining of vacation, we were renting near the Larsens (sic) Beach road, we walked Koolau road and Larsen’s Beach access road daily and were afraid we would run into either Bruce Laymon or one of his hired hands again. He was very threatening.
He ended by saying:
The above is a true and honest narrative of my encounter on March 6, 2010.
When I was confronted I was on a trail that I have used hundreds of times over the past seven years. There was a large truck, several pickups, guys with chain saws, and other large machinery clearing right up to the beach sand. I did not think that was right. I had taken pictures of the clearing work previous days, shared them with locals, and at least one of my pictures was in The Garden Island newspaper. I don’t know how they got it.
My wife and I are 62 year old retirees and have been coming to Kauai each winter for a month or two. We have real reservations about spending our vacation dollars on Kauai in the future. Just the lodging and rental car taxes for our two month’s on island this year were over $1,300. Larsen’s Beach is a unique natural treasure and the Larsen’s Beach experience is one that attracts a great deal of tourist revenue to Kauai . I hope it is protected for future generations.
Dennis L. Bosio
Kallai’s research into the significant cultural activities at Lepeuli are summarized in a letter to Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chief Executive Officer Clyde Nāmu'o.
The letter details the history of the region and so the need for a cultural impact statement according to Kallai. For those with an interest it is reprinted in full below.
RE: Cultural Impact Assessment Request
CDUA Permit Application 3525
DOCARE KA 09-12
Lepeuli, Ko`olau District, Kauai
Aloha no Mr. Nāmu'o and OHA:
There is a very distressing situation in the Lepeuli ahupua`a, Ko`olau District, of Kauai . A Conservation District Use Application has been submitted by Paradise Ranch, LLC and its attorney, Lorna Nishimitsu. This ahupua`a was acquired by Abner Wilcox in 1851 (Land Grant 530 for 535 acres for $535.68), with reservations (Koe ke kuleana o na kanaka) for the following kuleana(see attached): Kamokuliu (0519), Koleaka (05020), Kawelo(09073) , Kalawa (09149), Luahine (10014 also RP 4233), Makulu (0000K01), and a 20 acre Land Grant to Kane (523 in 2 apana). These kuleana areas are proposed to be disked, fenced and cross fenced for pasturage for commercial cattle production.
The Lepeuli Ahupua`a in the Ko`olau District of Kauai was a densely occupied coastal community of several hundred Native Hawaiians for about a thousand years, with features including ancient habitation sites,`auwai, agricultural sites and lo`i kalo, mala of noni, wauke, and u`ala, ponds and fish ponds, heiau and pa, and burial sites of `iwi kupuna. Coastal Alaloa connected the inter-related ahuua`a of the Koolau District from Kealia to Hanalei, through neigh boring areas of Moloa`a, Ka`aka`aniu, Lepeuli, Waipake, Pila`a, Kahili,Namahana, Kilauea and Waiakalua. Waipake kuleana landholders had kula of wauke in Moloa`a, connected by the coastal Ala Loa. A houselot in a Ka`aka`aniu kuleana had lo`i kalo in Lepeuli, documenting the inter-connectedness of these coastal fishing and agricultural communities
Taro production continued in Lepeuli Stream valley until the mid-1930's, when it was replaced by rice grown by the Japanese famers of Waipake. Contact period historic features include a four-room school, church, cemetery, pasture lands and piggery, sugar plantation ditches, and railroad tracks and the summer house of the plantation luna, L. David Larsen.
There has been no archaeological or cultural impact assessment of the potential impacts of proposed Paradise Ranch project on Waioli Corporation lands. There has never been any survey or inventory of Lepeuli. Applicant is applying for federal funds through the EQIP conservation program, subject to National Environmental Policy Act, which requires an assessment of environmental injustice assessment for particular impacts to subsistence hunters and gathers, dis-advantaged economic groups, races and cultural minorities.
According to Articles IX and XII of the State Constitution and other state laws, the state requires government agencies to "promote and preserve cultural beliefs, practices, and resources of Native Hawaiians and other ethnic groups."
The Department of Health (DOH), Chapter 343, requires an Environmental Assessment of cultural resources in determining significance and potential impacts of a proposed project.
Lepeuli has significant cultural and historic resources. The Ka`aka`aniu Reef system is the most highly documented tended limu in Hawai`i Nei, still of great important to the local residents. According to the predictive model of nearby archaeological assessments in Waipake and Moloa`a Bay Ranch, habitation sites and agricultural developments are expected to be in the stream valley with dryland terracing and agriculture on the slopes. Ancient and earlier prehistoric sites are predicted to be under the kuleana land filings. The historic ala loa joined the coastal communities throughout the Ko`olau District from Kealia to Hanalei.
The large swells of early December, 2009 exposed a significant archaeological site overlooking the stream channel of (de-watered) Lepeuli Stream. I notified SHPD (see attached); they claim it as one of their re-interments (see attached) - but there are significant features and charcoal firepits. I don't believe Nancy McMahon has been out to take a look.
There must be an archaeological and cultural impact assessment of the potential impacts of this Paradise Ranch CDUA to the Native Hawaiian community and it's special cultural resources and practices, including religious, subsistence fishing and gathering, by considering the impact of agricultural runoff to the reef resources of Ka`aka`aniu and cattle upon the historic kuleana lands of native Hawaiians in Lepeuli. Historic use by Japanese workers of Kilauea Sugar Plantation is highly documented. The only current residents of Lepeuli are descendents of Ko` olau School students.
I read with great respect your comments on the Moloa`a Bay Ranch CDUA. This Paradise Ranch project is of greater (more habitation and cultural uses) or equal importance, yet the Hawaiian community was not included for comments. The only history (and wildlife biology) was done by the applicant's attorney. Most of the Anahola community (including traditional cultural users and lineal descendents) do not know about this project. Federal funds should not be used to close off access to this important reef system. Paradise Ranch should not be allowed to rip and disk kuleana sands and back dunes (to increase water percolation!). Mr. Laymon, (known to disturb resting places of `iwi kupuna in prior CD violations) has stated that he knows where there are native Hawaiian burials. Scary.
Attached is a section excerpted from the Paradise Ranch SMA application that really deserves serious scrutiny.
Mahalo for your immediate action on this request and for requiring a cultural impact and archaeological assessment prior to any more impacting actions on these precious ancient Hawaiian homes and Conservation District Lands. Please contact me if you need any more information. Thank you for taking immediate steps to protect these resources and keep our history alive.
Hope Kallai
There were kuleana reserved in Lepeuli and resided on by Native Hawaiians until the 1930-1940’s. There are plenty of records and rememberences of these people. There are lineal descendents in the area.
One kuleana holder questioned whether he had to still pay taxes to the konohiki after Wilcox got Grant 530 Plenty of Hawaiian presence. The remains of a population of several hundred people living in Lepeuli for perhaps a thousand years are in the sands and lands of Lepeuli – not just 3 individuals. Conversion of house lots of kuleana to pasture has potential to significantly impact preservation and salvage of significant cultural resources. Closure of an ancient trail to important cultural resources is unacceptable.
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has concerns with this project. Their comments have not been considered. There must be a culturally respectful plan for the re-burials; they must be offered protection from mechanized manipulation of the soil, herbicides and cattle manure. This is culturally and socially unconscionable. Burials in a commercial cow pasture! AUWE!
--------
We’re again forced to take a long weekend to take care of pressing matters. See ya Monday or so.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
A CAPITAL IDEA
A CAPITAL IDEA: After explaining the difference between the real property tax “rate“ and the actual amount people pay in property taxes last month we almost facetiously suggested that in order to maintain services the council should consider raising the rate to a level where the payments would remain static.
We say facetiously because, as we described, the council has been so successful in making people believe their taxes go up only when the rate goes up that, as a victim of their success, they have apparently been refusing to consider raising the rate, especially in an election year... as evidenced by the lack of any mention of the possibility in the same breath as the proposed two-day-a-month furloughs of county employees.
But at yesterday’s budget hearing we were surprised to listen to a presentation by Councilperson Tim Bynum repeating the gist of what we wrote, sans the bombast.
Though we’re not sure what happened next since we never got back to watching the on-line coverage (not archived yet at press time) after the first break, it did get us thinking about the budget process and so we spent some time re-reading that county charter section today.
Another thing few people realize although it’s right there for their perusal is that the operating budget, is that what we commonly call “the budget” is only a portion of what we will actually spend this year because there is also a “capital budget” that goes to building new facilities.
The capital budget is for the most part supported by the sale of bonds and this year the county floated a new bond issue with a slightly better rate and also renegotiated our outstanding bonds.
Though many sort of treat the capital budget as some kind of free money, of course it’s nothing of the sort and shows up in the operating budget every year as a fixed expenditure that covers payments on the principle and the interest.
Not to say that it’s some kind of waste of money because it’s going to pay for many much needed projects like the repair of the levees in Hanapepe and Waimea and sewage treatment plants and the like- long neglected projects that have been delayed for years.
It obviously takes a lot of planning to decide on how much to borrow and how to spend it.
So it was no surprise that the county charter calls for one step that we don’t recall ever hearing or seeing.
Section 19.09B under Capital Program and Capital Budget, reads
The planning commission shall prepare the capital program for each of the ensuing five fiscal years, predicated upon the requests of the several agencies and based upon the finance director's statement of moneys likely to be available and the amount of bonds which the mayor believes would be proper for the county to issue.
We admit to being a little lax in keeping up with planning commission doings but if it ever did come before the commission it certainly wasn’t “prepared” by the commission with full public hearings and workshops to make sure that the public takes part in deciding where and how the money that’s borrowed is spent.
This isn’t just some formality. Although the mayor decides how much should be borrowed and the council approves and ultimately decides how to spend the bond money, the charter foresees the public participation part of the process as occurring before the planning commission- something that has never happened as far as we can tell.
Once again the county’s paternalistic attitudes cause corners to be cut wherever the public participation part of the process is concerned and the pervasive attitude inside the minotaur’s labyrinth- that that the public is nothing but a nuisance- rules the day.
We say facetiously because, as we described, the council has been so successful in making people believe their taxes go up only when the rate goes up that, as a victim of their success, they have apparently been refusing to consider raising the rate, especially in an election year... as evidenced by the lack of any mention of the possibility in the same breath as the proposed two-day-a-month furloughs of county employees.
But at yesterday’s budget hearing we were surprised to listen to a presentation by Councilperson Tim Bynum repeating the gist of what we wrote, sans the bombast.
Though we’re not sure what happened next since we never got back to watching the on-line coverage (not archived yet at press time) after the first break, it did get us thinking about the budget process and so we spent some time re-reading that county charter section today.
Another thing few people realize although it’s right there for their perusal is that the operating budget, is that what we commonly call “the budget” is only a portion of what we will actually spend this year because there is also a “capital budget” that goes to building new facilities.
The capital budget is for the most part supported by the sale of bonds and this year the county floated a new bond issue with a slightly better rate and also renegotiated our outstanding bonds.
Though many sort of treat the capital budget as some kind of free money, of course it’s nothing of the sort and shows up in the operating budget every year as a fixed expenditure that covers payments on the principle and the interest.
Not to say that it’s some kind of waste of money because it’s going to pay for many much needed projects like the repair of the levees in Hanapepe and Waimea and sewage treatment plants and the like- long neglected projects that have been delayed for years.
It obviously takes a lot of planning to decide on how much to borrow and how to spend it.
So it was no surprise that the county charter calls for one step that we don’t recall ever hearing or seeing.
Section 19.09B under Capital Program and Capital Budget, reads
The planning commission shall prepare the capital program for each of the ensuing five fiscal years, predicated upon the requests of the several agencies and based upon the finance director's statement of moneys likely to be available and the amount of bonds which the mayor believes would be proper for the county to issue.
We admit to being a little lax in keeping up with planning commission doings but if it ever did come before the commission it certainly wasn’t “prepared” by the commission with full public hearings and workshops to make sure that the public takes part in deciding where and how the money that’s borrowed is spent.
This isn’t just some formality. Although the mayor decides how much should be borrowed and the council approves and ultimately decides how to spend the bond money, the charter foresees the public participation part of the process as occurring before the planning commission- something that has never happened as far as we can tell.
Once again the county’s paternalistic attitudes cause corners to be cut wherever the public participation part of the process is concerned and the pervasive attitude inside the minotaur’s labyrinth- that that the public is nothing but a nuisance- rules the day.
Monday, May 10, 2010
ENHANCE THIS
ENHANCE THIS: Words matter. And when words change so can facts related to them.
It’s all part of the way the “big lie” works.
Just this morning, as if designed to give us a lead-in to how the coastal “bike path” became a “shared use” or “multi use path”, Ian Lind quoted a Mike Middlesworth article at Truthout.org, explaining how the media plays its part:
The oligarchy that owns and runs our government and controls our mass media has learned Goebbels’s lesson well: A lie unanswered is a lie believed – more so if the lie is repeated, over and over again.
Accordingly, a successful propaganda campaign must accomplish two essential and coordinated tasks: (a) tell the lies, and (b) see to it that they are not effectively refuted. The six media conglomerates that now control most of the US media accomplished both tasks supremely well.
So it’s no surprise that the somewhat clueless Leo Azambuja led his latest article on the bill that will no doubt be passed this Wednesday- after what he called “a long day of contrasting testimony from both sides of the dog-path issue” (emphasis added) last week- by saying:
The question of whether the county should allow dogs on the shared-use path has carried on for several months...
But why not? He has bought into the same big lie that any number of genuinely confused constituents have swallowed after being bombarded with propaganda by any number of “don’t confuse me with the facts”, misinformed misanthropes who insist that it’s not a bike path but one for any and all uses... even uses that make bicycling so dangerous to all as to make it all but impossible.
The fact is that the path originated through $40 million dollars of federal monies distributed by the state called Transpiration Enhancement (TE) funds.
The funds are specifically to be used for one of 12 activates acceding to 23 U.S.C. 101(a)(35), the most common being bike paths that provide for, well, transportation enhancement.
TE funds require a 20% match from the recipients. In our case that 20% came from donated lands the biggest portion of which, until recently, came from the Kealia Kai “gift” of coastal lands between Kealia and Kuna Bay (aka Donkey Beach).
The matter almost came to litigation when Attorney Bill Sweeney, representing several condos in Wailua that were slated to have the path run between their complexes and the ocean, threatened suit causing the county to move the path behind the condos.
Here’s the pertinent part of what he wrote at the time in convincing the county to change the route of the path lest they be sued for misusing the TE funds, according to administration testimony before the county council:
Transportation Enhancement (TE) Must Relate to Surface Transportation.
It is questionable whether the shoreline path relates to surface transportation and not recreation as required by applicable law. Each transportation enhancement (TE) project must relate to surface transportation and meet one of the 12 eligible activities [23 U.S.C. 101(a)(35)]. Applicable federal regulation clearly indicates that TE funds cannot be used to fund bike & pedestrian facilities that are solely for recreational use.
According to the language under 23 USC 217(1), "No bicycle project may be carried out under this section unless the Secretary has determined that such bicycle project will be principally for transportation, rather than recreation purposes".
Public support for modifying the pristine beach along the shoreline path with a concrete path or boardwalk is likely based on their misconception that the path will provide recreational opportunities. For example, in several articles in the The Garden Island Lester Chang reported as follows:
December 22, 2003: "The entire project would greatly enhance recreational needs in the Kawaihau District, the largest population area on the island, county officials have said."
March 6, 2004:
"The entire project is intended to enhance recreational opportunities in the Kawaihau District, which boasts the largest population of the island." (Emphasis added) The State of Hawai`i and Kauai Count must justify the shoreline on the basis of primarily benefiting transportation and not for recreational purposes.
The Inland Roadways route (Alternative 2) and the Canal Path route (Alternative 3) more clearly satisfy the objective of enhancing transportation in that they have a closer relationship to Kuhio Highway and are more likely to serve a transportation purpose. As discussed, the Inland Roadways route (Alternative 2) and the Canal Path route (Alternative 3) also avoid potential significant environmental, archeological and ecological concerns.
The number of examples and quotes have increased exponentially over the years, now numbering in the dozens from the newspaper and no doubt hundreds in minutes from county meetings.
And now, with the evolution of bike path to shared use path to dog path, the proof is in the pudding... or piddling as it were.
No one, despite dozens of requests- including a formal letter from then Councilperson Shaylene Iseri Carvalho to the state DOT just before she left office- has ever produced a determination from the federal secretary of transportation.
Some have gone as far as to claim that there never were any TE funds. But a simple visit to the county public works department will turn up the paperwork, as Building Division Chief Doug Hague will provide and attest to.
This weekend after reading in the announcement of the reelection bid of “shared use path” proponent Tim Bynum that he “wrote the initial funding proposal that started the shared-use coastal path project and continues to support its expansion” we asked him to explain and he confirmed that the $2.5 million in his proposal for the Lydgate Kamalani "Bridge", a maintenance shed and part of the path- as well as the other $40 million- came from TE funds.
So what? Well the addition of dogs to the strollers, kids roller-skating, people in wheelchairs and any number of future cat and even turtle walkers on the path (as has been discussed in council sessions) it has been said that it is now simply unsafe to have bicycles there- especially those using the path for 30 mph “transportation”- and perhaps we should move to ban bikes.
Banning bikes from a transportation-use bike path would seem pretty absurd. But when you call it a shared or muli-use path, well, anything goes doesn’t it?
We’re sure some troll will comment that we’re wrong. But then again that’s how the big lie works.
It’s all part of the way the “big lie” works.
Just this morning, as if designed to give us a lead-in to how the coastal “bike path” became a “shared use” or “multi use path”, Ian Lind quoted a Mike Middlesworth article at Truthout.org, explaining how the media plays its part:
The oligarchy that owns and runs our government and controls our mass media has learned Goebbels’s lesson well: A lie unanswered is a lie believed – more so if the lie is repeated, over and over again.
Accordingly, a successful propaganda campaign must accomplish two essential and coordinated tasks: (a) tell the lies, and (b) see to it that they are not effectively refuted. The six media conglomerates that now control most of the US media accomplished both tasks supremely well.
So it’s no surprise that the somewhat clueless Leo Azambuja led his latest article on the bill that will no doubt be passed this Wednesday- after what he called “a long day of contrasting testimony from both sides of the dog-path issue” (emphasis added) last week- by saying:
The question of whether the county should allow dogs on the shared-use path has carried on for several months...
But why not? He has bought into the same big lie that any number of genuinely confused constituents have swallowed after being bombarded with propaganda by any number of “don’t confuse me with the facts”, misinformed misanthropes who insist that it’s not a bike path but one for any and all uses... even uses that make bicycling so dangerous to all as to make it all but impossible.
The fact is that the path originated through $40 million dollars of federal monies distributed by the state called Transpiration Enhancement (TE) funds.
The funds are specifically to be used for one of 12 activates acceding to 23 U.S.C. 101(a)(35), the most common being bike paths that provide for, well, transportation enhancement.
TE funds require a 20% match from the recipients. In our case that 20% came from donated lands the biggest portion of which, until recently, came from the Kealia Kai “gift” of coastal lands between Kealia and Kuna Bay (aka Donkey Beach).
The matter almost came to litigation when Attorney Bill Sweeney, representing several condos in Wailua that were slated to have the path run between their complexes and the ocean, threatened suit causing the county to move the path behind the condos.
Here’s the pertinent part of what he wrote at the time in convincing the county to change the route of the path lest they be sued for misusing the TE funds, according to administration testimony before the county council:
Transportation Enhancement (TE) Must Relate to Surface Transportation.
It is questionable whether the shoreline path relates to surface transportation and not recreation as required by applicable law. Each transportation enhancement (TE) project must relate to surface transportation and meet one of the 12 eligible activities [23 U.S.C. 101(a)(35)]. Applicable federal regulation clearly indicates that TE funds cannot be used to fund bike & pedestrian facilities that are solely for recreational use.
According to the language under 23 USC 217(1), "No bicycle project may be carried out under this section unless the Secretary has determined that such bicycle project will be principally for transportation, rather than recreation purposes".
Public support for modifying the pristine beach along the shoreline path with a concrete path or boardwalk is likely based on their misconception that the path will provide recreational opportunities. For example, in several articles in the The Garden Island Lester Chang reported as follows:
December 22, 2003: "The entire project would greatly enhance recreational needs in the Kawaihau District, the largest population area on the island, county officials have said."
March 6, 2004:
"The entire project is intended to enhance recreational opportunities in the Kawaihau District, which boasts the largest population of the island." (Emphasis added) The State of Hawai`i and Kauai Count must justify the shoreline on the basis of primarily benefiting transportation and not for recreational purposes.
The Inland Roadways route (Alternative 2) and the Canal Path route (Alternative 3) more clearly satisfy the objective of enhancing transportation in that they have a closer relationship to Kuhio Highway and are more likely to serve a transportation purpose. As discussed, the Inland Roadways route (Alternative 2) and the Canal Path route (Alternative 3) also avoid potential significant environmental, archeological and ecological concerns.
The number of examples and quotes have increased exponentially over the years, now numbering in the dozens from the newspaper and no doubt hundreds in minutes from county meetings.
And now, with the evolution of bike path to shared use path to dog path, the proof is in the pudding... or piddling as it were.
No one, despite dozens of requests- including a formal letter from then Councilperson Shaylene Iseri Carvalho to the state DOT just before she left office- has ever produced a determination from the federal secretary of transportation.
Some have gone as far as to claim that there never were any TE funds. But a simple visit to the county public works department will turn up the paperwork, as Building Division Chief Doug Hague will provide and attest to.
This weekend after reading in the announcement of the reelection bid of “shared use path” proponent Tim Bynum that he “wrote the initial funding proposal that started the shared-use coastal path project and continues to support its expansion” we asked him to explain and he confirmed that the $2.5 million in his proposal for the Lydgate Kamalani "Bridge", a maintenance shed and part of the path- as well as the other $40 million- came from TE funds.
So what? Well the addition of dogs to the strollers, kids roller-skating, people in wheelchairs and any number of future cat and even turtle walkers on the path (as has been discussed in council sessions) it has been said that it is now simply unsafe to have bicycles there- especially those using the path for 30 mph “transportation”- and perhaps we should move to ban bikes.
Banning bikes from a transportation-use bike path would seem pretty absurd. But when you call it a shared or muli-use path, well, anything goes doesn’t it?
We’re sure some troll will comment that we’re wrong. But then again that’s how the big lie works.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
PRETTY RANK
PRETTY RANK: Hear that sound? It’s the roar of poll-addled 1st congregational district Democratic progressives falling over each other to abandon Colleen Hanabusa in favor of Ed Case so as to make sure Republican Charles Djou doesn’t win the special election to place their butts in now gubernatorial candidate Neil Abercrombie’s former U.S. House seat.
Yet apparently most of them are dragging themselves with a knife to their own throats a la Cleavon Little’s “nobody move or the sheriff gets it” scene in Blazing Saddles, bemoaning how they are forced to vote for a pseudo-Democratic DINO because, not just are they good little democrats but due to a series of circumstances that have conspired to force them to acquiesce to their own threats upon themselves.
In case you haven’t seen the polls- and why should you read them if you don’t live in “urban” Honolulu?- two polls, one by local news outlets and another by the Democratic National Committee have shown the two Democrats splitting the vote in the winner-take-all, special-mail-in election show Case with either a six or 14 point lead over Hanabusa respectively.
Even the usually politically astute blogger reporter and sometimes political staffer Ian Lind headlined a piece yesterday entitled 1st District–If Hanabusa can’t win, I would prefer Ed Case over Djou.
The forty comments that followed typify those in other articles and popular political blogs, blaming and bemoaning Neil Abercrombie for resigning, the winner take all election, the outside influences and money and any of a dozen targets.
Even President Obama is playing the game taping a robo-phone-call message that, although it doesn’t specifically mention Case, reminds voters not too subtly that he needs a Democrat in the seat implying “so vote for someone who can win”.
The one target for blame the Democrats leave out is of course themselves.
For many years third party and independent candidates have been given the shaft by the very election laws passed by the duopolists with Democrats and Republicans who can’t agree on anything except the fact that they’ve got a good thing going in playing salugi
with the votes of anyone not willing to play the game by their “heads I win, tails you lose” rules.
It’s not like a solution to the vagaries of plurality-based, on-and-off elections like these congressional fill-ins and “top two” non-partisan elections- the type we have in local elections non-partisan balloting in Hawai`i, where if no one gets 50% in the September “primaries” the top two vote-getters go to a November runoff- hasn’t been suggested to them for many years.
It’s called ranked choice or Instant Runoff Elections (IRV) and while it’s not quite sweeping the nation it’s gaining ground, especially in California where, while the state parties go back and forth between open and closed primaries, it’s the way many local jurisdictions including San Francisco hold their elections.
Here’s how it works in a 100 word explanation we’ve kept filed away for a decade now.
Each voter has one vote, and ranks candidates in order of choice (1, 2, 3, etc.). The counting of ballots simulates a series of run-off elections. All first choices are counted, and if no candidate wins a majority of first choices, then the last place candidate (candidate with the least first-choices) is eliminated. Ballots of voters who ranked the eliminated candidate first then are redistributed to their next-choice candidates, as indicated on each voter’s ballot. Last place candidates are successively eliminated and ballots are redistributed to next choices until one candidate remains or a candidate gains over 50% of votes.
It not only allows the voters to vote for whomever they want without playing the “I’d better go with the crowd to make my vote ‘count’” game- one we gave up years ago refusing to play the “spoiler” game- it allows them instead to pick the candidate they really want to see in office because if their candidate is eliminated their “next best” vote counts, thus avoiding the dizzying self-fulfilling prophesy of bandwagoning.
Is there anyone out there- other than a party boss- who wouldn’t rather vote for the candidate they like most while not having to fear electing the one they like least?
Not only does IRV make for a fairer election it also saves the cost of a top two runoff.
It also has a sister ranked choice system called Single Transferable Voting (STV) which allows for a similar- though a little more complicated-to-compile- ranking system for multiple seat elections such as the seven at large councilmember elections on Kaua`i.
If the Democrats do lose the special 1st CD they will have no one to blame but themselves for ignoring IRV lo these many years until it’s finally come around to bite them in the ass.
And if it does and Republican Djou wins they’ll probably still be pointing fingers rather than using their vast advantage in the legislature and county councils to pass new voting procedures that insure that it’s the voters who determine who wins, not the parties.
-------
For those who have turned to Peer News’ new Civil Beat and found out you have to shell out $20 bucks a month and a pay pals account to “enter”- although there is a one dollar 15 day trial offer now- and have given up since the “news” articles are unavailable after their official launch yesterday, we’ve got a couple of links to news stories courtesy of former local newspaper reporter extraordinaire Mike Levine who is covering land use there.
Honolulu Civil Beat — First Edition!: http://bit.ly/aaMeoS
Nonprofits Can't Escape GET, Despite "Tax-Exempt" Status: http://bit.ly/aoMFt1
Six Years After Plan, Homeless Problem Even Worse: http://bit.ly/dox96k
Are Honolulu Rail Job Projections On the Right Track?: http://bit.ly/9xBI40
Mike does promise neighbor island news including Kaua`i in the future
-------
We’re off “on assignment” as they say and will be back Monday.
Yet apparently most of them are dragging themselves with a knife to their own throats a la Cleavon Little’s “nobody move or the sheriff gets it” scene in Blazing Saddles, bemoaning how they are forced to vote for a pseudo-Democratic DINO because, not just are they good little democrats but due to a series of circumstances that have conspired to force them to acquiesce to their own threats upon themselves.
In case you haven’t seen the polls- and why should you read them if you don’t live in “urban” Honolulu?- two polls, one by local news outlets and another by the Democratic National Committee have shown the two Democrats splitting the vote in the winner-take-all, special-mail-in election show Case with either a six or 14 point lead over Hanabusa respectively.
Even the usually politically astute blogger reporter and sometimes political staffer Ian Lind headlined a piece yesterday entitled 1st District–If Hanabusa can’t win, I would prefer Ed Case over Djou.
The forty comments that followed typify those in other articles and popular political blogs, blaming and bemoaning Neil Abercrombie for resigning, the winner take all election, the outside influences and money and any of a dozen targets.
Even President Obama is playing the game taping a robo-phone-call message that, although it doesn’t specifically mention Case, reminds voters not too subtly that he needs a Democrat in the seat implying “so vote for someone who can win”.
The one target for blame the Democrats leave out is of course themselves.
For many years third party and independent candidates have been given the shaft by the very election laws passed by the duopolists with Democrats and Republicans who can’t agree on anything except the fact that they’ve got a good thing going in playing salugi
with the votes of anyone not willing to play the game by their “heads I win, tails you lose” rules.
It’s not like a solution to the vagaries of plurality-based, on-and-off elections like these congressional fill-ins and “top two” non-partisan elections- the type we have in local elections non-partisan balloting in Hawai`i, where if no one gets 50% in the September “primaries” the top two vote-getters go to a November runoff- hasn’t been suggested to them for many years.
It’s called ranked choice or Instant Runoff Elections (IRV) and while it’s not quite sweeping the nation it’s gaining ground, especially in California where, while the state parties go back and forth between open and closed primaries, it’s the way many local jurisdictions including San Francisco hold their elections.
Here’s how it works in a 100 word explanation we’ve kept filed away for a decade now.
Each voter has one vote, and ranks candidates in order of choice (1, 2, 3, etc.). The counting of ballots simulates a series of run-off elections. All first choices are counted, and if no candidate wins a majority of first choices, then the last place candidate (candidate with the least first-choices) is eliminated. Ballots of voters who ranked the eliminated candidate first then are redistributed to their next-choice candidates, as indicated on each voter’s ballot. Last place candidates are successively eliminated and ballots are redistributed to next choices until one candidate remains or a candidate gains over 50% of votes.
It not only allows the voters to vote for whomever they want without playing the “I’d better go with the crowd to make my vote ‘count’” game- one we gave up years ago refusing to play the “spoiler” game- it allows them instead to pick the candidate they really want to see in office because if their candidate is eliminated their “next best” vote counts, thus avoiding the dizzying self-fulfilling prophesy of bandwagoning.
Is there anyone out there- other than a party boss- who wouldn’t rather vote for the candidate they like most while not having to fear electing the one they like least?
Not only does IRV make for a fairer election it also saves the cost of a top two runoff.
It also has a sister ranked choice system called Single Transferable Voting (STV) which allows for a similar- though a little more complicated-to-compile- ranking system for multiple seat elections such as the seven at large councilmember elections on Kaua`i.
If the Democrats do lose the special 1st CD they will have no one to blame but themselves for ignoring IRV lo these many years until it’s finally come around to bite them in the ass.
And if it does and Republican Djou wins they’ll probably still be pointing fingers rather than using their vast advantage in the legislature and county councils to pass new voting procedures that insure that it’s the voters who determine who wins, not the parties.
-------
For those who have turned to Peer News’ new Civil Beat and found out you have to shell out $20 bucks a month and a pay pals account to “enter”- although there is a one dollar 15 day trial offer now- and have given up since the “news” articles are unavailable after their official launch yesterday, we’ve got a couple of links to news stories courtesy of former local newspaper reporter extraordinaire Mike Levine who is covering land use there.
Honolulu Civil Beat — First Edition!: http://bit.ly/aaMeoS
Nonprofits Can't Escape GET, Despite "Tax-Exempt" Status: http://bit.ly/aoMFt1
Six Years After Plan, Homeless Problem Even Worse: http://bit.ly/dox96k
Are Honolulu Rail Job Projections On the Right Track?: http://bit.ly/9xBI40
Mike does promise neighbor island news including Kaua`i in the future
-------
We’re off “on assignment” as they say and will be back Monday.
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